IN MY VIEW. . .GPs DOOMED TO DISAPPOINT PATIENTS

WHEN I was a boy, whenever I was bedridden with a childhood ailment, our GP came to visit.

As a medical student, I did work experience with his successor.

In between morning and evening surgery, we visited people at home: a patient dying of cancer, someone housebound following surgery for a broken hip — all part of general practice in 1970.

These days, I pity the poor patient who needs to see the GP. Patients are faced with waits to see a doctor, some surgeries have so many patients they cannot accept any more. As for home visits, forget it.

And, as was outlined by the National Association of GPs last week during their protest, the situation can only get worse. Many GPs plan to retire in the next five years. Meanwhile, only 38% of trainee doctors intend to become GPs.

People are turning to pharmacists or physiotherapists instead for help. But this doesn’t address the problem, as more government funding is needed to make the GP service in Ireland sustainable.

GPs are still trying to be family doctors as the role was first conceived — but against a very different backdrop, and so are doomed to fail. Until we rethink the care a GP can realistically offer — so that it can again become a rewarding career — there will be continuing shortages.