Dearth of doctors to hit west

Large areas of the west are in danger of losing their full-time GP service over the next five years – because retiring doctors cannot or are not being replaced.

That’s according to the Galway-born President of the National Association of General Practitioners, Dr Maitiú Ó Tuathail, who warned that the future of GP services in rural Galway grows more uncertain by the day.

Almost one in three GPs in Galway is expected to retire within the next five years – and younger GPs are not hopeful about remaining in Ireland to fill these positions.

“Six hundred GPs are set to retire within the next five years, and this will disproportionately affect the West of Ireland, including rural Galway and Connemara,” said the Leitir Mór native, now based in Dublin.

“The reality is that locum doctors are being brought in for one or two days work a week in certain areas, and they have to do the work of someone who should realistically be there for five or six days a week. That’s not sustainable,” he added.

He was commenting on a recent parliamentary question by Sinn Féin Health Spokesperson Deputy Louise O’Reilly which revealed that one in five primary care centres in the country does not have a doctor on staff.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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