Dr. Pádraig McGarry:

In relation to general practice, and especially with the roll-out of chronic disease programmes, we see that there probably will be significant need for additional practice nurses. Unfortunately, we still do not have the resources within general practice to attract additional nurses into the system at present. We would be hopefully taking them from the HSE but, unfortunately, the perks that would be involved in normal employment within the HSE simply cannot be matched in the sector. We would like to see an additional resource supplied to provide that.

Second, the transition of general practitioners who are trained into full-time general practice and into being principals is a huge issue. Interestingly, the Irish College of General Practitioners, ICGP, indicates that up to 50% of trained GPs would see themselves as principals in a ten-year period but there is a sort of transition period in between. We would like to think a support, similar to the practice nurse support, could be brought in to bring those GPs into a practice, get their feet under the table, see what it is like and, hopefully, allow a smoother transition into general practice. One may solve some of the retention problems in that way. One needs to get them engaged first to see what it is like. We have that problem where they are just not getting engaged at this point in time.