Clearly all brokers aren't created equally. Perhaps it was down to my age, but the broker pretty much said tick that box and you'll have problems.What you were told is incorrect. There is even a box to tick on most forms if you don't have a GP.
The GPs are over subscribed everywhere.
Ireland not far from ‘major catastrophe’ due to GP shortage | BreakingNews.ie
Dr Knut Moe from the ICGP says more training places must be provided to address the shortage of GPs across the country.www.breakingnews.ie
COVID has just made it worse.
Those "doomsday" estimates from the ICGP are puzzling:-
"of the approximately 4,700 GPs currently working in the State, 700 will retire over the next five years, while just 350 GP training places are planned for 2026."
So we are told that an average of 140 GPs will retire in each of the next 5 years, but we're only told that 350 GP training places are planned for 2026. Why didn't Doctor Moe (who presumably is on secondment from The Simpsons) give us the numbers of GP training places that are planned for 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025?
We are already a couple of thousand GPs short, e.g. Australia has almost 2x the number per head of population. So there is a deficit before anyone ever retires. And demand is ever increasing, both from a rising population and the expansion of free GP care, e.g. the infamous under-6s programme by FG which created 8x more demand than government had predicted.
There is then the 15% or so GP trainees who leave Ireland permanently after training (no wonder Australia has so many). Plus another 5% who leave temporarily. So you can discount the training numbers by 20% to adjust for that.
The hundreds of GPs retiring are not being replaced like-for-like. Older GPs tended to work full time, while younger GPs are increasingly working part time. So it takes a greater number of new GPs to replace retiring ones.
The reason people are struggling to register with GPs is because they aren't enough of them. They're aren't enough of them because being a GP in Ireland is hard work that people generally don't appreciate. Lots of more attractive ways to earn a higher wage.
OP, if you write to your TDs they may be able to help you. In fact one of them may be back to work as a GP himself after the next election...!
All of which may (or may not) be true, but doesn't explain why Doctor Moe's alarmist press release didn't bother to provide the number of training places being provided for the years before 2026.
He is not alarmist if what he says is correct, which it is. It's not a press release, it's an article from a new site. For all we know he may have provided very detailed information that they decided to edit out.
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