FactCheck: Are there 1,000 more GPs in Ireland than five years ago?

THE HEALTH SERVICE is never far from the headlines and will be front and centre during the general election campaign.

The Irish Medical Organisation is among the groups to label this plan unrealistic, saying GP services are already at “breaking point”.As part of a recent debate on RTÉ Radio 1′s Saturday with Cormac Ó hEadhra, Fianna Fáil TD Jack Chambers was critical of Health Minister Simon Harris. The Evidence TheJournal.ie contacted Doherty’s office to ask for the source of her claim. One of the minister’s advisers said she was referring to the number of GPs on the Medical Council’s specialist register – something that was not stated in her original remarks.There is no central register of GPs working in Ireland. However, figures can be gathered from the Medical Council, the Irish College of General Practitioners and the HSE Primary Care Reimbursement Service.

A spokesperson for the ICGP noted that GPs are “contracted under the General Medical Scheme to treat Medical Card patients, and those entitled to free GP services and the GP card”. There are 2,974 such contracts in Ireland as of this month. This figure was 2,889 in 2015 – an increase of 85. “The register of medical practitioners is a ‘living’ database. Each working day doctors are entered on, removed from or transferred between the divisions of the register. For this reason comparison between reports based on registration data must take account of this ‘living’ nature of the database.”

3. Doctors not normally resident in Ireland who travel to Ireland regularly to provide short-term cover for out-of-hours services/relief for annual or other leave. These doctors may or may not be on the specialist register. They are most commonly recruited through Irish medical employment agencies. Of these, 2,608 were on the specialist register, 38% were on the general register and 6% were on the trainee register. Less than 1% were on the specialist register but not registered as GPs. This latter group would comprise doctors who are on a different specialist register but who work primarily in general practice.Doctors registering with the Medical Council are asked to state if they have worked in Ireland in the preceding 12 months.

Could be. But there's nearly quarter million more people too.

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