GPs in training only enough for services to ‘stand still’

The number of GPs currently being trained is only enough to allow services to "stand still" and is not sufficient to allow the introduction of universal GP care, the professional body for general practice in Ireland has said.

The Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) said that it would like to see more resources put into training new GPs, even as Minister for Health Leo Varadkar admitted training another 2,000 doctors between now and 2025 would "not be realistic".

Mr Varadkar confirmed earlier this week Government plans to introduce free GP care for all citizens had been dropped from the Fine Gael party's manifesto.

Instead it will commit to all under 18s and older people with chronic illnesses availing of the scheme by 2020.

Fine Gael sources had said 2,000 GPs would be required to implement the plan over the next five years but that only about 170 are trained every year in Ireland.

The Labour Party is retaining the proposal to introduce free universal GP care in its general election manifesto, insisting it can be achieved despite the lack of GPs.

Speaking on Thursday, Mr Varadkar said there would be a specific commitment in the Fine Gael manifesto to “incrementally increase the number of GP trainees ever year”. Training 1,000 between now and 2025 was “ambitious”, but training 2,000 more “would not be realistic”.

A spokesman for the IGCP said a number of reports by academic bodies and European bodies had said more GPs were needed here.

Otherwise there would not be enough GPs to see patients with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, and in order to accommodate the shift of health policy into the community.

“Now that the country is back on track we would very much like to think that the health service can invest to have all those structures and processes to train GPs,” the IGCP spokesman said.

Type 2 diabetes

Mr Varadkar was speaking at the launch of new integrated care guidelines for the management of Type 2 diabetes in general practice, developed by the college.

Velma Harkins, author of the guidelines, said there had been an "explosion" in the prevalence of diabetes – predominantly Type 2 – which was forecast to rise by up to 62 per cent between 2007 and 2020.

Separately, the Medical Council said it would contact more than 4,000 doctors to identify how registration and employment practices can better support doctors new to the Irish health system.

UCD’s School of Medicine has been appointed to interview new and recent entrants to medical practice to find out what education and training they would have benefitted from when they first began work.

Medical Council chief executive Bill Prasifka said recent years had seen rising numbers of doctors practising medicine in Ireland for the first time.

“Entering practice in a new health system for the first time is clearly very challenging, even if you were educated here, and in our research, a number of doctors have highlighted deficits in induction which can lead to them feeling unprepared. While our role in induction is limited, it’s important that we use our regulatory remit to support doctors new to practice.”