Kilcullen doctor highlights locum shortage for rural GPs

Shortage of locum cover for GPs, especially in rural areas, has been highlighted by Kilcullen doctor Deirdre Collins, writes Brian Byrne. Speaking on RTE News last evening, she said cover for annual leave and maternity-paternity leave is one of the biggest issues in the sector.

The chairperson of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) made the comment following yesterday's publication of General Practice in Ireland: An Analysis of Supply & Demand by the Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. The paper was produced by the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES) at the Department of Health. Among other matters, the document addresses GP numbers, retirement and succession planning, productivity, and capacity constraints in medical general practice.

Dr Collins noted that there are shortages of GPs in a number of urban deprived areas as well as in widespread rural general practices which are 'under pressure all the time'. "These would be, for example, in Clare, Galway, Mayo, up to Donegal, and also down in Tipperary, Wexford, and even Westmeath and in my own county of Kildare."

She said the big problem for many areas is that there are well-established and well-loved single-handed general practices where a significant number of doctors will be retiring. "Twenty-five percent of our GPs are over 60, so that tells the tale. We need to look at ways of handing those practices onwards to a newer generation of GPs." She said that providing cover for times that a GP in a single-handed practice needs to take off is a key support requirement.

Dr Collins said that the ICGP has been sending the message for a long time about the need to ensure that rural practices are an attractive proposition. "We know the value of life there. Many of us also know that it's wonderful to live there and so we need to ensure that our general practitioners, the trainees coming out, and those who are setting up in practice, want to go there too."

Saying that the value of a good general practitioner can never be underestimated, she also highlighted what she termed as the 'joy' of the work. "General practice is about taking care of somebody from before they're born, when they're born, and the whole way down to when they pass away in our care. That's what makes us all want to be general practitioners. I get to care for people who remember me when I was a child, and I remember others when they were children, and I would take care of my older neighbours and friends as they go on through their illness."

Dr Collins added that with 350 new doctors coming into training every year, it is 85 percent more than was the case ten years ago. "But it's not all about the numbers, but about keeping those doctors in general practice and giving them specialty training to deliver excellent healthcare for their people."

She also commented on the financial pressures on GPs and their staff in the busy commuter belt areas. "If somebody is going to work and live in any of those areas, it's going to cost a lot of money to buy a house, and to buy or rent a practice to work from. So we would look to the Department of Health, to the HSE, to look at ways of supporting that bricks and mortar investment in general practice."

Dr Collins is a founding partner in the Kilcullen Family Practice.

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