Meath has lowest number of GPs per head of population

Meath has only half the GPs recommended by the World Health Organisation for a county its size, leaving many residents struggling to access a family doctor.

The county has the lowest number of GPS per head of population in the country with just 54 doctors per 100,000, according to recent figures from the Irish College of GPs (ICGP). WHO recommends 100 GPs per 100,000.

As public representatives warn of the impact on patients care and local doctors warn they have no capacity to take on further workload, one Trim man has spoken of his six month wait to see a GP about a problem he was having with his ear.

"I went deaf in one ear last September and tried to contact a GP. I tried GPs in Trim, Longwood Summerhill and Enfield. None of them could send me up. All I wanted was for a GP to refer me to someone who would see about my ear.

"It was February before I eventually saw a doctor and I then went privately to the Beacon Hospital for treatment. I had also been referred to the hospital in Drogheda but haven't heard from them yet.

Deputy Darren O Rourke said any shortage of GPs has an impact on access to care. "The scale of the problem in Meath is beyond compare in Ireland and has a real impact. As a result, people in Meath struggle to get timely appointments, they avoid necessary care, or they present inappropriately to Emergency Departments."

Deputy Peadar Toibin said his offices are inundated with people who cannot get a GP appointment on time.

"This delays treatment which has a negative effect on health and well being. But it also forces people to present at A&Es."

Navan GP Marie Scully said that at 54 GPs per 100,000 population, doctors in Meath are working almost twice as hard as those who are at or near the recommended 100 per 100,000.

"We have literally no capacity to take on further workload," she says.

"Patients sometimes think we down tools and go home once the last patient goes out the door, but we don’t! There is a huge amount of paperwork to get through - results to be reviewed and communicated to patients if abnormal, letters from the hospitals to be read (which increasingly ask us to do things like recall patients for follow up tests etc), referrals for hospital appointments, investigations, prescriptions to be sent, reports to be done. The more patients the more the paperwork!

"Our practice is large and so we don’t have the additional problems of smaller practices like the difficulty in finding locums so that you can take leave. As our practice expanded we were unable to recruit in Ireland and so have managed to recruit from abroad in order to cope with our existing patient demand.

"The increase in numbers of GP visit cards, while welcome, does however impact also on our workload as they do tend to present more frequently. An ageing population with increasing complexity of medical issues, long waits for hospital outpatient appointments all increase the work of GPs."

Deputy Toibin, the Chair of the Save Navan Hospital Campaign, condemned the latest figures.

Meanwhile, a much needed new GP surgery to cater for the growing population of Trim is on the way after planning permission was granted for a new doctor’s surgery in the town.

Dr Blathnaid McHugh has been granted planning permission for a doctor’s surgery at Finnegan’s Way, Trim. One submission was made in support of the development by local councillor Aisling Dempsey who said she “wholeheartedly welcomed” the application and highlighted the need for more GPs to serve the population of Trim.

In her submission she wrote: “It is fantastic to see Dr McHugh make this application. Our existing medical practioners are full to capacity and unable to operate waiting lists never mind take on new patients.

”We have people living in our town, literally decades now, who have to travel to other parts of the county and country to attend their original family doctor.”

Last week, Meath County Council granted planning permission subject to conditions.