This article is from page 8 of the 2008-05-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
UP TO a quarter of all family doc- tors in Ennis are not taking on any new patients.
Chairman of the Clare branch of the Irish College of General Prac- titioners (ICGP) Dr Michael Harty said that 25 per cent of general prac- titioners in the county town have closed their list.
“In areas of population growth the number of patients is out stripping the number of GPs. In the rest of the county I wouldn’t be aware of any that have closed their list,” he said.
The Clare GP representative con- firmed however that the work of all GPs has increased significantly in the last number of years, an issue that 1s to become even more serious as a huge shortage in the profession is predicted.
“In general terms the work of the GP has increased by 50 per cent. Part of this is due to the population increase but one of the major factors for the increase in workload is the transferral of patients from hospitals to GPs,’ he said.
These transferrals include Warfarin and diabetes clinics.
“We are doing a lot more interven- tion than we used to,” he said.
The Kilmihil doctor said that the public also has greater expecta- tions and are more health conscious, which leads them to visit the doctor
more often.
There are currently 2,500 GPs in Ireland a number that is decreasing due to the older age profile of the profession.
The issue is about to reach crisis point however as not enough doctors are coming on stream to replace cur- rent GPs planning to retire.
“There are a large cohort of GPs that are within 10 to I5 years of re- tiring,” he said.
It takes 11 years for a student to go from first year medicine to a fully qualified GP.
‘We need to plan in advance and at the moment that is not there,’ added Dr Harty.
He said that 121 GPs qualify each year.
This number was to reach 150 but the HSE withdrew funding last year.
Initially it was hoped to bring the number of GPs trained every year to 180.
A survey carried out by the Irish College of General Practitioners showed over 50 per cent of GPs had problems recruiting partners to their practice, while 66 per cent had dif- ficulty-recruiting assistants.
Minister for Health Mary Harney admitted this week that there is a need to increase the number of GPs in the country.