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GENERAL PRACTICE IN Ireland is at “breaking point”, the Irish Medical Organisation has warned.
It made the comment while addressing Department of Health officials at an oral submission on the review of the operation under the Financial Emergency Measures (FEMPI) in the Public Interest Act 2009.
The IMO said that the imposition of further cuts, on top of recent severe cuts in financial support for GP services “threatens to destroy the fabric of the Irish GP system”.
Waiting lists
IMO GP Chairman, Dr Ray Walley said that decisions taken under the act yesterday “may well herald the introduction of waiting lists for patients for the first time in Ireland and the unavailability of GP services in certain parts of the country”.
He added:
Further cuts in payments to GPs will mark the end of any capacity to introduce Universal GP Care in Ireland in the foreseeable future.
Dr Walley said that additional cuts “will devastate general practice and will, in turn, have adverse effects on the most vulnerable patients who are dependent on the services of their GP”.
The IMO emphasised that unless general practice is protected, “waiting lists are inevitable”. It said that general practice “will lose the capacity to meet the needs of patients and this will lead to significantly increased referrals to other services which are already under pressure”. GPs believe the greatest impact of any cuts will be the frail, the elderly, mentally impaired, children and those with literacy problems, said the IMO.
They also believe that attracting GPs to rural and disadvantaged areas is now a critical issue.
In the long term, further cuts “will virtually guarantee that universal GP care will not be possible for at least five years”, added the organisation.
Dr Walley said:
There is another way to meet the strict budgetary limits imposed by the State’s funders in a proportionate and fair manner. The challenge is to look at new and innovative ways of maximising our resources and using them in a way that meets patient needs and provides greater value for money.
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The emergency planning committee will sort it out I’m sure.
It was 4 degrees at 5.30am when I was going to work… Its raining here now Cork City
@Marcus Mc Cann: Breaking news: weather is different in different parts of country.
@Marcus Mc Cann:
Does the article actually say what the temp was?
Brass monkeys and all that, actually, my Mom had a set of those brass monkeys and they didn’t have any to freeze lol.
@Anna Carr: the brass monkey was actually the plate on which they stacked the canon balls on Royal Navy ships. The reference to freezing the balls off them was when so much ice built up on them that the canon balls would fall of the plate/monkey.
@Ivan Connolly: Myth!!!
And I say, “Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.” And he says, “Oh, uh, there won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.” So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.
have your say