Sir, – Minister for Health James Reilly's assertion (Letters, February 10th) that everything is on track for a "health service we can all be proud of" sadly depends on many assumptions, most of which are erroneous.
The Minister states, for example, that “Free GP care for the under-sixes will be introduced later this year as the first step towards universal GP care”. Unless Mr Reilly is personally going to treat the hundreds of thousands of children involved, it is difficult to see how he can make this claim and keep a straight face.
In a recent survey, conducted by the National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP), we found that only 3 per cent of all GPs would definitely be willing to sign up for the enormous increase in workload involved (over a million extra GP visits per year) without any consultation with the GPs who are to provide the service or any increase in the resources provided to general practice.
General practice funding has been reduced by almost 40 per cent in the last three yearrs by Mr Reilly’s FEMPI cuts. As a direct consequence of these cuts, many general practitioners are struggling to run a viable practice. These issues are more than “bumps on the road” as the Minister disparingingly puts it.
The Minister’s claim that one primary care centre is being opened every month is also open to question: If such an investment is there, could he please supply us with the figures as we can find no evidence for this assertion. Even if it were true, it would take a lot more than opening 12 primary care centres a year to provide a proper nationwide service.
The solution for primary care of course, is for the Minister to engage with general practitioners to bring it back from the crisis position in which he has placed it. So far, the Minister has refused to talk to GPs and refused to listen to their very real concerns. Simultaneously he has managed to alienate most sectors of the medical, nursing and allied professions with his mishandling of the growing crisis in the wider healthcare area.
The fact is, the Minister is more adept at promising a better health system for the future than he is at dealing with the serious healthcare issues that are with us now.
How much longer long does the Minister have to remain in office before he admits that the mounting chaos in the health service is a direct result of his inept handling and delusional policies? – Yours, etc,
CHRIS GOODEY,
Chief Executive Officer,
National Association of
General Practitioners,
Kildare Street, Dublin 2.