Dr. Pádraig McGarry:

The contract is absolutely crucial, as are all the supports which will be allied to the contract, and this is not just for general practitioners. The currency of general practice is time - the time to give to patients who present with increasingly complex problems as they get older. We are heavily dependent on manpower and because resources have been cut over the past number of years there is not the capacity within general practice to provide the necessary time. The resources are not there to hire people and most general practitioners probably have the workload of one and a half GPs and an additional nurse, but without the resources to hire. This will get worse because, as people get older, presentations are going to get much more complex and the time needed will grow exponentially. We need to address that.