I cannot find a GP where I live. I have called every single one and they all say they’re full. The attitude is horrible, aggressive and they moan about their predicament whilst basically telling a patient to feck off and rot.
I have looked at avenues of recourse for this intolerable situation and there does not appear to be any though the HSE or the Medical Council. The HSE will only intervene for medical card holders(which I’m not) and the Medical Council only deals with complaints against existing GPs.
Sadly, the response from everyone is that nothing can be done and it is completely unacceptable that patients seeking care should be told to persist in limbo indefinitely.
If anyone knows of any avenues to complain or get some satisfaction, please post it as I’m far from the only person in this situation.
The only cure is to make it more worthwhile for people to become GPs. It’s 10 years medical training to become one currently and then the earnings potential and security of being a GP are lower than a hospital consultant.
I’ve had the same gp all my life(technically my gp retired but the gp who took over the practice has all my info n she’s a star) it must be a nightmare to get a new one.
Retrain barristers
Train the barristers
I’m not sure what we can do realistically. One avenue I’d suggest would be to create more district health centres, where GPs would get more support (e.g. be able to take time off), and where more of the work could be given to medical staff who wouldn’t need the same level of training as a GP.
Nobody wants to be a GP full time anymore. It’s a shit job, frankly.
Even people who have qualified as a GP don’t do it full time anymore. They do a couple of days a week as a GP and do a research job the rest of the time. More money that way. Less commuting.
It’s also an arduous process to become a GP and after all that, you end up locuming for years. And even if a permanent job is available, it could be in the arse end of nowhere, where you just don’t want to live, or can’t uproot your whole life to live. I know several GPS have massive commutes because they live in X and their kids are in school in X, but are locuming in a different county.
In Dublin it’s not so bad because you have opportunities to locum around the city, but outside of it you’re talking crazy distances.
Tbh being a doctor is incredibly tough regardless of speciality – even people who specialise in hospital specialities have to spend a couple of years in the UK or in the States. They can’t buy a house until they’re hitting 40 because they don’t know where they’re going to live. I don’t think teenagers have any idea when they put it down for the CAO what the reality of the job is.
I don’t know if this a thing or not, but maybe they can open schooling to adults as well?
Seems to me that after 2020, we should get way more options to reskill or reschool ourselves, so people that were stuck in dead-end jobs can study for something else.
But I guess the state doesn’t have enough money to offer grants for that 🤔
Stop making medicine such a fucking misery to train and work in would probably help.
I expect GP as we know it to go the way of public hospitals. More multi GP primary care centres and practices set up by private groups to go along with more private hospitals springing up.
Why does a student still need to get max points in the leaving cert to make the course?
Quadruple the size of the course ffs. Should have been done 10 years ago.
On line GP , also nurses are very qualified to do most GP tasks ….they are just forbidden to do them …look at Africa a muse on a motor bike carries out minor operations, delivery of babies . They are restricted by the Irish medical council I believe ….in doing what they are trained to do.
Local centers where despite having 400 staff you can’t get an answer on the phone or an appointment.
There could be a reduction in fees for international medicine students if they stay in the republic afterwards for four or five years as GPs
Train more doctors.
Why are the points so high for something so in demand?
Open it up to the free market.
Something tells me doctors don’t actually want this though. They like a closed system. Higher earning potential.
What’s the solution in your opinion?
If this is any other problem /job the answer is
“Pay more money to attract the best people/talent”
Except when it’s a doctor role we just opt to treat them like shit and scratch out heads when it doesn’t work.
I assume hiring abroad is the solution instead of increasing pay to accommodate inflation ?
Sounds like a sustainable solutions
Yes but the cure is extremely difficult. It requires making this country worth living in.
18 comments
I cannot find a GP where I live. I have called every single one and they all say they’re full. The attitude is horrible, aggressive and they moan about their predicament whilst basically telling a patient to feck off and rot.
I have looked at avenues of recourse for this intolerable situation and there does not appear to be any though the HSE or the Medical Council. The HSE will only intervene for medical card holders(which I’m not) and the Medical Council only deals with complaints against existing GPs.
Sadly, the response from everyone is that nothing can be done and it is completely unacceptable that patients seeking care should be told to persist in limbo indefinitely.
If anyone knows of any avenues to complain or get some satisfaction, please post it as I’m far from the only person in this situation.
The only cure is to make it more worthwhile for people to become GPs. It’s 10 years medical training to become one currently and then the earnings potential and security of being a GP are lower than a hospital consultant.
I’ve had the same gp all my life(technically my gp retired but the gp who took over the practice has all my info n she’s a star) it must be a nightmare to get a new one.
Retrain barristers
Train the barristers
I’m not sure what we can do realistically. One avenue I’d suggest would be to create more district health centres, where GPs would get more support (e.g. be able to take time off), and where more of the work could be given to medical staff who wouldn’t need the same level of training as a GP.
Nobody wants to be a GP full time anymore. It’s a shit job, frankly.
Even people who have qualified as a GP don’t do it full time anymore. They do a couple of days a week as a GP and do a research job the rest of the time. More money that way. Less commuting.
It’s also an arduous process to become a GP and after all that, you end up locuming for years. And even if a permanent job is available, it could be in the arse end of nowhere, where you just don’t want to live, or can’t uproot your whole life to live. I know several GPS have massive commutes because they live in X and their kids are in school in X, but are locuming in a different county.
In Dublin it’s not so bad because you have opportunities to locum around the city, but outside of it you’re talking crazy distances.
Tbh being a doctor is incredibly tough regardless of speciality – even people who specialise in hospital specialities have to spend a couple of years in the UK or in the States. They can’t buy a house until they’re hitting 40 because they don’t know where they’re going to live. I don’t think teenagers have any idea when they put it down for the CAO what the reality of the job is.
I don’t know if this a thing or not, but maybe they can open schooling to adults as well?
Seems to me that after 2020, we should get way more options to reskill or reschool ourselves, so people that were stuck in dead-end jobs can study for something else.
But I guess the state doesn’t have enough money to offer grants for that 🤔
Stop making medicine such a fucking misery to train and work in would probably help.
I expect GP as we know it to go the way of public hospitals. More multi GP primary care centres and practices set up by private groups to go along with more private hospitals springing up.
Why does a student still need to get max points in the leaving cert to make the course?
Quadruple the size of the course ffs. Should have been done 10 years ago.
On line GP , also nurses are very qualified to do most GP tasks ….they are just forbidden to do them …look at Africa a muse on a motor bike carries out minor operations, delivery of babies . They are restricted by the Irish medical council I believe ….in doing what they are trained to do.
Local centers where despite having 400 staff you can’t get an answer on the phone or an appointment.
There could be a reduction in fees for international medicine students if they stay in the republic afterwards for four or five years as GPs
Train more doctors.
Why are the points so high for something so in demand?
Open it up to the free market.
Something tells me doctors don’t actually want this though. They like a closed system. Higher earning potential.
What’s the solution in your opinion?
If this is any other problem /job the answer is
“Pay more money to attract the best people/talent”
Except when it’s a doctor role we just opt to treat them like shit and scratch out heads when it doesn’t work.
I assume hiring abroad is the solution instead of increasing pay to accommodate inflation ?
Sounds like a sustainable solutions
Yes but the cure is extremely difficult. It requires making this country worth living in.