Dr. Diarmuid Quinlan:

The area of north Cork including the towns of Kanturk, Boherbue and Millstreet had 18 GPs in 2018 but that number is now down to 12. The population of the area has expanded because people are moving there since the housing is more affordable. Twelve GPs working in the area clearly cannot do the work that 18 GPs undertook previously.

Like many practices, they are simply saying they cannot accept new patients onto their list. Having said that, there is a huge shortage of GPs. In my practice, for example, we employ a phlebotomist who takes blood and that has freed up nursing time. By freeing up nursing time, the nurses now do some of the stable chronic disease management like diabetes care, asthma care and so on. That frees up GPs to take on more complex care. Increasingly, by expanding the multidisciplinary team, we ensure all the healthcare professionals are working at the top of their licence. While we need more GPs, we also need substantially more GP nurses, phlebotomists, healthcare assistants, and pharmacists in general practice.