Sir, – In the media the Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly continues to state that GPs in Ireland are among the highest-earning doctors in Europe and that having 1,000 medical card patients on one’s books is worth €250 000 per annum to a GP practice.
As a former GP and also a former president of the Irish Medical Organisation, the Minister knows this to be obtusely untrue.
Dr Reilly is clearly spinning stories for the benefit of his Oireachtas colleagues and attempting to manipulate the opinion of the general public on this matter.
I would like to respectfully ask the Minister to desist from this unhelpful and mischievous propaganda and I challenge him to produce the documentation to support either of his claims.
General practice is now failing and sadly most of the destruction is at the hands of this Minister.
Dr Reilly’s only legacy will be that of dismantling the one part of the health service that actually worked, the one part that had no waiting lists, the one part of the health service that was value for money and the one part of the health service that consistently delivered the highest satisfaction rate among patients.
If he continues down this path of destruction it could take decades to recover what he has done in three short years.
The Minister has the foundations of a first-class health system at his fingertips. We have the best-trained doctors in the world and we are the envy of Europe with regard to our practising doctors.
For the sake of our families, our friends and our future the Minister must stop the systematic devastation of family medicine in Ireland, he must follow the lead of his colleagues in Europe and the rest of the world, invest in general practice and build a health service we can be proud of, not one of which we are ashamed. Yours, etc,
CHRIS GOODEY,
Chief Executive Officer,
National Association
of General Practitioners,
Kildare Street,
Dublin 2