Dr. Mark Murphy:

I completed my GP training about four years ago. One gets into medicine for all the right reasons - being empathetic and wanting to care for patients. All one wants to do is see patients and then one realises that there is a whole business outside that, including managing resources - the team. I think it is fair to say that the independent contractor model of general practice is extremely efficient for the State. The workload is all on us. Dr. Noonan is in work until all hours. I was in until 7.30 last night. We are working very hard. It is an efficient model. One begins to realise that the contract for services - the GMS, the mother and infant scheme and childhood immunisations - coupled with private income sources is a very efficient model when it works.

However, in the past ten years the funding has reduced to such a level that it is now broken. We cannot invest in our existing premises, develop services or hire staff. It is not that the overall system is broken; the system works. Most countries employ GPs as independent contractors through publicly funded source contracts. We are not talking about corporates. It is an efficient model.

We should be allowed to do what we are trained to do and deal with chronic diseases and access diagnostics through primary care. We like the system and if the Government can fix the funding models as independent contractors, we will stay. We are all for supporting salaried GPs, including those in inner city deprived practices and in rural areas. There are salaried GPs on some offshore islands. However, the current model should be fixed as it is. We have highlighted the broken aspects. They should be fixed first.