Greater Dublin Area<\/a>. Patients across Kilkenny, Meath and Kildare face significant challenges in timely access to GP care, according to the analysis.<\/p>\nPopulation growth in these areas is \u201cparticularly strong and sustained\u201d, the college\u2019s analysis found, but this \u201csignificantly exceeds\u201d the expansion of general practices, primary care centres and the number of GPs.<\/p>\n
The third challenge for patients arises in urban areas where there are high levels of social deprivation. <\/p>\n
\u201cPatients in these areas experience complex multimorbidity, have significantly greater healthcare needs, and develop chronic disease a decade earlier than patients in more affluent areas. These factors increase the workload of GPs,\u201d the analysis finds.<\/p>\n
\u00d3 Fearraigh\u2019s rural location along the western seaboard means he is one of those offering services in these pressure points. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe town I\u2019m in it wouldn\u2019t have the population to support a large, group practice but it very much can support a small practice,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
For him and most single-handed GPs, it can be very difficult to establish a work-life balance or to get any meaningful time off without having adequate supports in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaternity leave isn\u2019t easy to get cover in those areas. Trying to get short-term leave is very challenging \u2013 you\u2019re on your own; you\u2019re a bit exposed in those practices so it can be difficult for people to come there and provide that care,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u00d3 Fearraigh says that in his area the older population is spread out and has \u201chigh care needs\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat comes with some challenges but also some great opportunities and a lot of what that provides is what I love about my job,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re providing that cradle-to-grave service.\u201d<\/p>\n
He typically works 9am-6pm, Monday-Friday, but \u201ctypically\u201d goes in on a Saturday and spends some time on paperwork.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a huge amount of paperwork and admin associated with patient care and running a practice,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The practice has about 2,000 patients, of which about half have a medical card. <\/p>\n
It is open to new patients within his local area, but he cannot accept every new person who seeks to become part of the practice. His practice has increased by about 300 patients since 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I am near Letterkenny, there was significant unmet need there because of pressures, and I was getting a lot of requests from further afield and that was challenging to accept those requests,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was accepting them for the first year but now I try and limit that. It\u2019s very difficult. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen people coming who are pregnant and needing maternity care, and I haven\u2019t left anybody in the lurch but when you reach the capacity point, it\u2019s difficult because you need to meet the needs of your patients.\u201d<\/p>\n
But what exactly is driving these pressures? <\/p>\n
According to the Irish College of GPs, there are many reasons for increasing demand for GP care. They include an ageing and growing population, people with multiple health conditions,patients needing multiple medications, the expansion of State-funded care under the medical card scheme and the ageing profile of GPs that can lead to gaps in GP cover when doctors retire.<\/p>\n
The population of the State is expected to rise above 5.8 million by 2030, on top of a 9 per cent increase over the past five years. <\/p>\n
On top of that, the State has one of the longest life expectancies in the European Union. Older people tend to have higher rates of multiple illnesses and see GPs more frequently than younger people. This is having a real impact on access and care. <\/p>\n
According to GPs, many patients report having to wait several days for an appointment, though many doctors try to keep slots available each day for those who need it most.<\/p>\n
Other patients report being unable to register with a local GP when they move to a new part of the country as doctors insist their practice lists are full.<\/p>\n
In a bid to meet demand, the workforce in general practices has increased by about 10 per cent over the past five years, to 4,900, but this is not enough, the college warns. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe GP workforce is expanding but cannot meet current patient healthcare needs,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n
Research from State think-tank the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), last year suggested at least 940 additional GPs will be required to meet expected demand over the next 15 years.<\/p>\n
Steps are being taken to increase these numbers further, with the college of GPs, the HSE and the Department of Health putting a programme in place.<\/p>\n
Currently, the GP training programme has an annual intake of 350 students every year, but a further expansion of the scheme is promised, bringing the total annual intake to 400.<\/p>\n
Adding to this, there is also the international medical graduate rural GP programme designed to tackle the shortage of GPs in rural areas.<\/p>\n
The programme recruits and integrates experienced, non-EU doctors into rural practices, providing supervised practice, continuous mentoring and a route to specialist registration. <\/p>\n
There are more than 200 GPs serving rural communities across rural Ireland who have completed or are participating in this programme.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, GPs and patients are continuing to feel the squeeze. <\/p>\n
![\"GP](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/BXMSCQPO6VEGFLYNB5AADHR4NE.jpg\")
GP Deirdre Collins 2026 <\/p>\n
Along the Dublin commuter belt, Deirdre Collins, a GP in Kilcullen, Co Kildare, says there are 3,500 people in the town in which she works, but she serves a wider hinterland and often cares for patients living near other urban areas such as Naas and Newbridge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a concern about people having to travel distances to access care. We are open at the moment to taking on new patients in general but we would be conscious of the fact that if we take a patient from too far away, they\u2019re quite far away from us,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
The practice encourages people \u201cto stick with the town they\u2019re with as much as possible but I would certainly be aware of people saying they can\u2019t get someone locally,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had building booms in commuter towns. That\u2019s starting to happen again. That\u2019s something that we as a practice are starting to think about in terms of how many doctors we have available and how many slots we have available.\u201d<\/p>\n
The four-doctor practice Collins works in carries out a considerable amount of acute care and emergency care, but she says what people want from the health service has changed and preventive care is increasing. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat changes the day greatly. People come in with quite a few things that you\u2019ve got to manage. Patients\u2019 needs and what they want from their doctor has changed,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are now managing things that are much more complicated than we were before.\u201d <\/p>\n
Care must be of a high standard, says the experienced GP, regardless of the pressures on the system. <\/p>\n
Many patients book in for appointments but some slots are left open for emergency care, although she says that \u201ccapacity can be difficult\u201d.<\/p>\n
Collins says the practice works on the principal of ensure patients get \u201c10 or 15 minutes of good time\u201d and not \u201ctwo minutes of bad time\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there are times where you have to say: \u2018We just cannot see any more people today safely,\u2019\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two years ago, general practitioner Dr Ciar\u00e1n \u00d3 Fearraigh bucked a trend among doctors: he moved from a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[78],"tags":[3496,6368,18,38419,112537,135,60,19,17,70824,3625,35046],"class_list":["post-603171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-department-of-health","tag-donegal","tag-eire","tag-esri","tag-greater-dublin-area","tag-health","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-college-of-general-practitioners","tag-kildare","tag-monaghan"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116979075677088501","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}