Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I assure the House that the Government is committed to the continued development of GP capacity. The goal is to ensure patients across the country continue to have access to GP services and that general practice is sustainable in all areas into the future. GPs have a crucial role in the provision of primary care services. Particularly in rural areas, local GPs play a vital and ongoing part in the lives of most people in the community. I want to ensure that existing GP services are retained and supported and that general practice remains an attractive career option for newly qualified doctors.

I understand that there are two General Medical Services, GMS, GPs in Ballaghaderreen. In addition to their medical card and private patients, these GPs provide care to refugees in the emergency and orientation centre in Ballaghaderreen. While neither of these GPs has GMS panels exceeding the maximum number of patients permitted under the GMS scheme, the HSE is aware that they are under pressure to provide such services but has not been made aware of any particular difficulties in this regard. Local HSE management in Roscommon is committed to liaising with the two GPs on an ongoing basis in respect of the provision of services to patients in Ballaghaderreen.

The Government is aware of workforce issues generally facing general practice, including the influence of demographic factors, and has implemented a number of measures to improve recruitment and retention in general practice. These include changes to the entry provisions to the GMS scheme to accommodate more flexible or shared GMS GP contracts, and to the retirement provisions for GPs under the GMS scheme, allowing GPs to hold GMS contracts until their 72nd birthday. Enhanced supports for rural GP practices have also been introduced. These steps should help to address the future demand for GPs by enticing GPs who may have ceased practicing for family or other reasons back into the workforce, facilitating GPs to work past the standard retirement age and encouraging more GPs to work in rural areas. There has been a huge expansion in the number of training places on GP training programmes in recent years. In 2009, there were 120 GP training places available and in 2018, 193 places were filled, an increase of approximately 60% over this nine-year period.

It is acknowledged that there are many challenges in general practice. That is why the Government remains committed to engaging with GP representatives on the development of a package of measures and reforms to modernise the current GMS contract. Talks between the Department of Health, the HSE and the Irish Medical Organisation as the established GP representative body are continuing. Agreement on the delivery of these service improvements and contractual reforms has the potential to facilitate a substantial increase in the resourcing of general practice on a multi-annual basis.

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