A CAMPAIGN to recruit GPs in the UK will be launched by the Health Service Executive in the coming weeks in an attempt to tackle a major shortage of GPs, the Oireachtas health committee heard yesterday.
Dr Joe Clarke, the HSE’s GP adviser said there was a GP manpower crisis and the age profile of GPs was now in the 50- 60-year-old age group. Last year the Irish College of General Practitioners accepted 120 people for their four-year GP training course but received three times that number of applicants.
As some of these unsuccessful applicants may have gone to England or Scotland to complete their training, the HSE is now hoping to attract them home. The earning potential of GPs in Ireland is more attractive than that in the UK.
Dr Clarke said an accelerated GP training programme would also address the manpower crisis.
This accelerated programme would be open to non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs) who had worked as locums in the community and wished to train as GPs.
The HSE is also working on the introduction of family-friendly GP contracts on a pilot basis.
The increased supply of GPs will be critical for the roll-out of the planned 530 primary care teams. These teams will be GP-led and will involve professionals such as nurses, home helps, physiotherapists and occupational therapists in a “one-stop-shop” for patients.
Laverne McGuinness, HSE director of primary, community and continuing care, said 113 teams would be in place by the end of this month, and all 530 teams would be in place by 2011.
Not all teams would be operating under one roof, she said, but they would all work as teams, meeting regularly and referring patients to appropriate services.
The HSE is considering the lease of 200 facilities for use as primary care centres and will also adapt its own premises to meet its needs. It will sell health centres that would not be inappropriate as primary care centres.
The committee heard that “five or six” centres had already opened and about 10 more were expected to open this year. Labour’s Jan O’Sullivan, Fine Gael’s Dr James Reilly and Sinn Féin’s Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin all expressed concern at the sale of HSE facilities and the lease of new premises, with Dr Reilly describing it as the “corporatisation” of GP care.
Ms McGuinness said existing HSE facilities would only be sold if they were inadequate for conversion into primary care centres.
