Dr. Laura Noonan:

They are leaving because they see that general practice is not adequately resourced. They are looking at increased demands on services, more complex patients, increased complexity of patients and more difficult to manage patients with less time in which to manage them. The traditional GP visit or appointment varies between ten and 15 minutes. That is an ideal day. When extra acute presentations, which are what our actual GMS resources us to do, arrive, they often have to be double booked into an appointment which is already set aside for a very complex patient with five or six medical problems. One ends up seeing the acute patient as an extra and running behind while there are ten people waiting in one's waiting room. We are working harder and harder. There are no idle GPs. GPs are working as hard as they possibly can. They are not getting to take breaks and they are not doing their paperwork. They are doing consultations and paperwork is happening in the evenings. For example, I have just set up my own practice in rural Ireland. I have a dual-centre practice in Ballymore, Westmeath and Ballymahon in Longford. I move between premises at lunchtime and have house calls to do on the way. At 6 p.m. in the evening, my child needs to be collected from her after-school service. I do not see my four-year old child anymore. I am in practice doing paperwork, worrying about my patients, integrating blood results, calling people about abnormalities, trying to plan for their chronic management and trying to plan for their care. Somebody else reads my child her bedtime story. She is growing up behind my back. However, I want to do this work because I care about my patients. Other graduates like me care about their patients too but they are leaving. They are flocking to Canada, which is our main exportation site, followed closely by Australia. They go there to work in a service that works.