Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Rural communities across Ireland are suffering from a deficit of GPs. This trend has worsened over time as more and more established GPs retire. Recently, in my constituency, two GPs, one in Thomastown, County Kilkenny, and one in Carlow town, were due to retire. Both practices provided crucial step-down care support to older people on discharge from St. Columba's Hospital, Thomastown, and Sacred Heart Hospital, Carlow. Several of their GP colleagues around the constituency contacted me to express their great concern that it would be very difficult to replace these doctors who are so crucial to their local communities. The doctors I have spoken to feel the recruitment and advertising methods being implemented are not effective. It must be closely examined and addressed.

We are not doing enough to incentivise young doctors to take up medical practice in this country, especially in rural areas. We cannot allow a situation to arise where rural communities across the country are left without any access to local GPs. While I remain hopeful that the €210 million announced for investment in general practice will entice some doctors to stay, I do not think that it will go far enough to address the systemic problems. It is proving impossible to recruit GPs to certain rural areas due to increased operating costs and dramatic cuts to the grants used to support surgeries. I am calling on the Government to immediately re-examine the supports available to GPs who seek to start up surgeries. In May 2015, almost four years ago, more than one third of GPs in Carlow were aged over 60 years, and they will be eligible to retire in the next year or so. I am sure this is mirrored in many parts of the country. It highlights the need for urgent and radical action.

The agreement reached between the Government and the Irish Medical Organisation earlier this month is a start but its impact on GP waiting time remains to be seen. A constituent came into my office recently. She moved from north Kilkenny to south Kilkenny recently. When her GP took leave of absence for health reasons, an older, retired doctor took over. He said he could not continue to provide her with a service. She tried in Thomastown, with two doctors, and in my parish of Ballyhale, but none of the doctors could take her on. She is a medical card holder but at the moment she has no doctor to look after her. This is serious. It is something that is happening in rural Ireland. If we do not retain the doctors we are training, and put an end to the newly qualified professionals travelling out of the country so that they can provide a service, rural Ireland will have no doctors. That is a serious situation.

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