Rural Ireland is facing a healthcare crisis because GPs are emigrating rather than signing up for ‘restrictive’ contracts with the Health Service Executive (HSE), a Galway/Roscommon TD has claimed.
Independent Michael Fitzmaurice says the HSE needs to enter into “meaningful engagement” with GP representatives in order to agree a new deal on GP contracts – or else the situation may worsen.
As things stand, the current GP contracts are not an incentive for doctors to work in Ireland – he claims GPs are emigrating and finding better terms, conditions and pay abroad.
The practical implications of this is fewer GPs available in rural areas, which in turn means more patients for those GPs and greater distances to travel to see a GP for patients living in rural areas of County Galway, he said.
Speaking to the Connacht Tribune, Deputy Fitzmaurice said rural areas were facing a GP crisis.
“We need a new GP contract to help to solve the GP crisis that is facing the country, particularly rural areas,” he said.
“The GP contract that is there is not attractive enough for GPs anymore. Younger doctors particularly don’t want to sign up for it. They get better money and conditions abroad. But there’s also the huge responsibility here. If you sign the contract, you are basically a sub-contractor. That means you’ve to provide cover 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
”If you get sick, you have to find cover. If you are on holidays, you must find the cover. The HSE doesn’t do that. It is the GPs responsibility. The reality is that GPs are sub-contractors to the HSE and they hear nothing from them from one end of the year to the other.
“From the research I’ve done on this issue, there are enough GPs. That isn’t the problem. The problem is the contract and young GPs especially aren’t winning to sign their lives away. They prefer to go abroad, or they will provide cover or do locums but they will not sign up to these contracts,” said Deputy Fitzmaurice.
The Glinsk politician said the HSE has already cut allowances for rural GPs; and the HSE is pushing people to attend doctors’ practices who are not in a position to cater for them.
“People in rural areas are now having to travel further and further to access a service. We need a new GP contract incorporating that doctors do more work that would prevent people from having to attend hospitals.
“This contract must also recognise that GPs must have time off and that gaps must be filled to maintain the service.
“At the moment, no young doctor will sign the contract that exists and take on the responsibility that it entails. We need a new GP contract to be drawn up and agreed as soon as possible,” added Deputy Fitzmaurice.
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