Dr. Diarmuid Quinlan:

The west of Ireland and the entire Wild Atlantic Way is really a phenomenal place to live and raise a family. If we put in place the correct resources, we will have no difficulty attracting GPs to work in these areas. The major challenge for doctors is the inability to secure holiday locums. Almost no doctor will take up a post where they cannot secure reliable locum relief so they can take holidays with a young family. A Cork town has recently lost a single-handed GP who was there for over ten years. She has left and closed her practice specifically because of the inability to secure a holiday locum. That is a major issue.

There are other issues such as practice premises and rural supports. It is more challenging to work in rural areas where the expectation is the GP is dealing with a much wider range of issues. If somebody gets seriously injured on a farm accident in my area, the ambulance would be there within ten minutes and bring them to the university hospital which is ten minutes away. In areas such as north Cork, the air ambulance helicopter comes in and rescues that person, but the GP can be there for several hours supporting them and providing onsite care. It is a much more challenging environment for a GP and we need to support and resource that appropriately.