James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

The Minister referred to 0.5 GPs per 1,000 persons. We have 52 GPs per 100,000 while France has 164 and Austria 144. To put this in context, throughout the country GPs are closing lists, with 35% of GPs in the north east closing lists because they are overworked and cannot take any more patients. This has been coming down the line for some time. In her reply, the Minister alluded to the fact that 150 GP training places were supposed to be made available. This year, the funding for the final 30 places was supposed to have been provided but because of budgetary constraints, this will not happen. I remind the Government that we have a manpower crisis. It is not coming down the line, it is here now. Within the next 12 years, 50% of the general practitioner population in the country will retire and we are already in trouble before we go there.

Two out of three young doctors cannot access GP training. The problem is not that we do not have enough qualified doctors who want to be GPs. We have plenty but they cannot access training positions. This is why it is so important that the Minister accedes to requests for the funding for the 30 additional places. I spoke to the college and even if we want to stand still, we need an average of 200 GP training places a year. However, given that we will lose 50% of them during the coming years, we need 300 places for the next four or five years.

Will the Minister re-examine the situation and fund these critical jobs? Will she also examine another method of training qualified and experienced doctors to be general practitioners? They have completed much of their training but they cannot get on to a training scheme or access their MICGP exam. What hope does Professor Brendan Drumm have for his great new vision of the future in which we do not need more beds and we have primary care facilities provided by general practitioners if we do not have GPs to deliver services today let alone tomorrow?

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