People in Dublin can reach a GP on a Sunday afternoon in almost 90 per cent of cases, the WONCA conference heard yesterday. A person can speak directly to a doctor in more than a third of cases and to a deputising service in almost half of cases, according to a study carried out by Dr Patricia Carmody, who practises in Fairview.
Deputising services included secretaries and spouses, who then got in contact with the GP or a replacement GP on a rota. The average time before contacting a doctor was 2.4 minutes.
A doctor or deputising service could not be reached in 12 per cent of cases, mainly for technical reasons, such as the GP's answering machine breaking down or the phone connection to the GP's home not working. The study found there was a 42 per cent chance of speaking to a GP on the south side of Dublin compared to a 32 per cent chance on the north side. The study went north as far as Lusk and Balbriggan and south as far as Killiney, said Dr Carmody.
Almost half the calls to northside GPs were referred to a deputising service, while 43 per cent of calls to southside GPs were referred.
Very little was known about out-of-hours availability of doctors in Dublin before this study, according to Dr Carmody. There had been suggestions of failures in the out-of-hours service provided by Dublin GPs.
The study was carried out on two consecutive Sundays in November 1997, between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. It was conducted by Dr Carmody and Dr M. Bates, Dr M. O'Brien and Dr B. Nelligan. The study contacted 414 GPs and found them to be co-operative. One got annoyed. Another refused to give his name.