North Cork residents cannot access GPs, according to local TD

Cork East TD James O'Connor told a Committee of Public Accounts hearing, which featured HSE CEO Bernard Gloster and other senior health executive officers as witnesses, that the lack of GP access was an issue brought up frequently in north Cork ahead of the Local Elections earlier this year.

"People cannot get in the door to see GPs in Mitchelstown and Fermoy. This is replicated in other parts of the country," the Fianna Fáil said.

"I am not even going near the SouthDoc issue but it is extraordinarily worrying that even when people require a consultation with a doctor in an emergency or a call-out to a home that the service is collapsing."

Deputy O'Connor, who said all his siblings are working in healthcare settings, claimed that more people are ending up in the hospital system which is having a significant impact on costs.

Earlier in the debate, he said the lack of GP access in rural Ireland is "extraordinarily bad and it is getting worse".

"Lack of access to out-of-hours services is at crisis level. I do not want to get too parochial but I can speak to my constituency because I know about it from meeting constituents. When people want to see a GP but perhaps cannot do so or they have to wait for a period, their health worsens," he said.

"That potentially requires an emergency solution, with people going to an emergency department. The consequence is that they may end up on a hospital bed or on a trolley. This clogs up our hospital system."

Deputy O'Connor said that if he was not mistaken, it is "staggering" that 25% of GPs are now over the age of 60. He asked HSE CEO Mr Gloster what he had done to address this, as HSE expenditure has rapidly climbed.

Mr Gloster said GP training places have been increased courtesy of a structure change this year while South African doctors can come to work in Ireland for two years under an arrangement with the Irish College of General Practitioners.

HSE Chief Clinical Officer, Dr Colm Henry, said Ireland has a national level of GPs to population which is "suboptimal". He said money has been set aside to support stand-alone GP practices with locum support and there is hopes to raise the number of international graduates from 121 to 250 a year to help bring the GPs to population ratio to 11 doctors per 10,000 people.

Mr Gloster also confirmed that progress is being made on getting planning for a primary care centre for east Cork in Midleton.