Free care for all will 'collapse' GP co-ops
Out-of-hours doctors’ co-ops will collapse if the proposal to roll out free GP care to all in the next five years is followed through, the chair of the Irish Association of GP Co-operatives has warned,
Ken Egan, a Mayo-based GP, said co-ops were already “getting flooded by the under sixes” since the extension of free GP care to this age cohort in 2015.
He said private patients went to the doctor about three times a year, but visits would double if free care came in for all.
“If I opened up a grocery store in Eyre Square and started giving out food for free, there would be queues in minutes. The same will happen if everyone gets free GP care,” Dr Egan said.
He said they were already finding it difficult to staff the “red-eye” shift (midnight to 8am). The number of patients attending out of hours, particularly on the east coast, “where people come home from work and the creche says ‘your kid isn’t well’ ”, was leading to “choc-a-bloc” waiting rooms.
Doctors were working excessive hours and patient safety was compromised, said Dr Egan.
The proposal to extend free GP care is reported to be among the recommendations of a cross-party Oireachtas Committee examining the future of healthcare.
John Duddy, outgoing Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) president, said the proposal was “unrealistic and likely unachievable based on current staffing and funding in the primary care setting”.
Dr Duddy was addressing the IMO AGM in Galway, where doctors voted in favour of a motion urging the Future Healthcare Committee to consider the costs of health service provision and the funding model required to deliver an equitable health service.
Consultant psychiatrist Matt Sadlier said that if the committee produced a purely “aspirational” document, “then I will really think they have failed in their function”.
Doctors also voted in favour of a motion calling for an amendment to the 2007 Medical Practitioners Act to allow changes such as in-camera fitness-to-practice hearings.
Ray Wally, a GP in North Dublin inner city, said the act, as formulated, meant doctors were “guilty until proven innocent”.
Cathal O Súilliobháin, a GP in addiction services in Dublin, said he had “personal experience” of complaints being lodged against him and said it was “incredibly stressful even when you know it’s rubbish and you know it will be dismissed”.
Dr Wally said a former colleague had committed suicide while a complaint loomed over him.
David O’Gorman, a retired consultant dermatologist from Galway, said some complaints “are of such a ridiculous nature that I would welcome them being heard in public”.
A separate motion calling for the State to provide an unambiguous definition of ‘a child’ was also passed.
Dr Sadlier pointed out that “you can get married at 16, but under the Mental Health Act, you are a child if you are under 18”.
