According to a recent research, the exodus of general practitioners with Irish training is making Ireland’s acute family doctor shortage worse, reports The Mirror.
Every year, up to 30% of Ireland’s recently graduated general practitioners leave the country for Australia, New Zealand, Canada, or the UK.
Irish-trained general practitioners in the four major destination nations for GP emigration are the subject of the first research of their type, reports The Mirror.
The researchers said: “Ireland is experiencing a general practitioner workforce crisis, facing an ageing workforce, a growing population with increased life expectancy, and increased complexity of patients,” reports The Mirror.
Their survey found that the lack of family doctors in Ireland is being exacerbated by GP emigration. The survey discovered “a significant stock of Irish-trained GPs abroad,” despite the Irish College of GPs stating that there are 4,370 GPs practicing in Ireland.
In the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, there are 1,077 general practitioners with Irish training, reports The Mirror.
The outbound movement of general practitioners trained in Ireland might seem “relatively small,” according to the authors, who include Dr. Holly Rose Hanlon from the RCSI’s GP Retention initiative.
Medical registration was used to calculate the number of general practitioners who emigrated from Ireland to Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Canada between 2012 and 2021, reports The Mirror.
They discovered that 42 Irish-trained or Irish-citizen general practitioners went to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, or the UK between 2021 and 2022, whereas 144 GPs finished their training in Ireland during the same year.
The team added: “This level of GP emigration relative to the level of GP training is significant as it indicates that 30% fewer GPs than expected entered the Irish healthcare system in that year. The net increase to the stock of GPs in Ireland based on the number of new trainees was 30% lower than expected as it was offset by the emigration of 42 GPs in the same period,” reports The Mirror.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.
