The Government is facing calls to increase the number of intern places for medical students to encourage more doctors in to rural general practice.
Representatives from the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) outlined the “huge pressures” on GP practices to the Oireachtas health committee on Wednesday.
Medical director Dr Diarmuid Quinlan said that less than 9 per cent of medical students interns select general practice.
He said that if they are to encourage GPs to work outside the main cities, then training should be delivered in general practice in the areas that need it.
“Ulster University is the newest student medical school in the country, and they deliver 30 per cent of their undergraduate training in general practice,” Dr Quinlan added.
General practice needs more intern places, and greater supports for rural general practice, the @ICGPnews delegation tells the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health @Oireachtasnews at this morning's sitting.@FoyFintan #BEaGP #GPfuture pic.twitter.com/S0kWfBExBf
— Irish College of GPs (@ICGPnews) December 14, 2022
“In week one, in year one in Ulster University, the medical students spend time in general practice and that’s not replicated in this country.
“That means that our young doctors and medical students aren’t exposed to general practice and ideally, we would have a situation where our universities are adequately resourced to deliver a substantial amount of our medical undergraduate training in general practice, and that will increase the number of Irish doctoral students who choose to work and stay in our general practice.
“I think we do need to look at our medical education systems from the very outset. We need a lot of the training to be delivered in general practice.”
ICGP chief executive Fintan Foy said Ireland trains the highest number of doctors per head of population in Europe.
“Yet, we don’t enable a lot of them to remain in our country,” he added.
“So we have a very great shortage of intern places and if we want more doctors, then a very easy win would be to increase the number of intern places because we force many doctors who are not EU graduates to leave our medical schools and go abroad for internship.
“I’m thinking particularly of Canadian medical students who train here and many of them are unable to secure an intern place so they go back overseas.
“Then a year or two later, we’re scouring the globe looking for doctors, having forced our graduates to emigrate.
“We need more intern places, we don’t have enough intern places.”
Dr John Farrell, chair of the ICGP, said there are around 30 communities across the country without GP services or GP services are being provided by locums, which he said comes at a “huge cost”.
“We need to encourage more people to practise in rural Ireland, and they will need incentivisation,” he added.
“We’re looking at establishing effective rural practices in colleges to encourage more people to practice in rural Ireland, which is badly needed.
“The areas that are under resource would be rural general practice and inner city.”
Dr Quinlan warned that the crisis is acute in rural Ireland.
“If you look at places like Skibbereen, Lisdoonvarna, Cahersiveen, Achill Island, the number of GPs there is simply not sufficient to look after the patients,” he added.
“This is about patient care and in these areas, the crisis is particularly acute.
“We need resources to specifically support rural general practice.”
