The health service in Ireland is crumbling. For too long, GPs have had changes unilaterally imposed upon them, resulting in practice income cuts of up to 38 per cent.
General Practice in Ireland is at breaking point. Newly trained GPs are leaving the country, many with no intention of returning unless conditions improve. A generation of GPs is retiring with no one to replace them. All the while, GPs are being asked to do more for less. Most people around the country are unable to register in a GP practices as the practices have had to close their lists to new patients. Locums are near impossible to source and the funding for them from the GMS contract is paltry. GPs are disenfranchised, demoralised, despondent and despairing about the future of General Practice in Ireland. Something has to change before it is too late.
The promise of negotiations on a new GMS contract have once again failed to materialise and there has been no meaningful dialogue on FEMPI reversal.
We petition the Government, Minister for Health Simon Harris and the Department of Health and HSE to finally value GPs in Ireland by resourcing GP appropriately, reversing the FEMPI cuts imposed on GPs that have brought the service to its knees around the country and by meaningfully engaging with GPs to negotiate a new GMS contract (to replace the existing 40 year old one) that will adequately resource and serve the communities that they are intended to provide for.
Anything less is simply unacceptable.
(Please note, this petition is not, nor should it be construed as, GPs collaborating or being anti-competitive in any way. This is a petition for anyone to sign to voice discontent over the lack of progress over GP service funding - it is not a method of collective negotiation and does not aim to replace work being done by IMO/NAGP, merely support it)
Updates
Reached 1,000 supporters
June 27, 2018
June 24, 2018
The exhaustion is setting in but we are inching toward one thousand signatures. We need to push the target number higher before the department can claim we are not paying attention.
Reached 100 supporters
June 20, 2018
June 17, 2018
The exhaustion is setting in but we are inching closer to the hundred mark. I need you to push this link to someone new right now because the silence from the department is still deafening.
213 Comments
People are waiting up to two weeks to get GP appointments. The service needs to be made more appealing for newly qualified GPS, and also the administration involved in medical practice makes it an unappealing prospect for young GPS to set up clinics.
As a new entrant hospital consultant I feel the way GPs are treated is disgraceful. While I find myself questioning my own choices on a daily basis - I just can’t figure out how those in power think general practice can actually survive nationally under current conditions
GPs are everyone's first resource for heslth care. My GP has literally saved my life and made my late wife's life so much easier in her last years. GPs MUST be properly funded. Doing so will SAVE the HSE money on hospital care.
It makes perfect sense to adequately fund GP's. They are the first point of contact for patients and act as a buffer for the emergency departments. Reduced GP services will result in a total melt down of A&E's all over the country!
Disproportionate cuts to rural and deprived general practice >50% impacts on patients, staff, GPs and their families. It's grossly unfair when FEMPI reversed for all other groups essentially without conditions. FEMPI reversal first then a new contract.
loads of people suffering from depression in rural areas and there first place to go to is rural GPs , I don't think the government is taking the suicide epidemic in this country seriously enough if they are not supporting the health service
Our GP service is vital in local towns and villages across Ireland its our first port of call and eases up Emergency Departments. Look after our existing doctors. And keep newly qualified ones in our Country. Make it worthwhile for them to stay.
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The health service in Ireland is crumbling. For too long, GPs have had changes unilaterally imposed upon them, resulting in practice income cuts of up to 38 per cent.
General Practice in Ireland is at breaking point. Newly trained GPs are leaving the country, many with no intention of returning unless conditions improve. A generation of GPs is retiring with no one to replace them. All the while, GPs are being asked to do more for less. Most people around the country are unable to register in a GP practices as the practices have had to close their lists to new patients. Locums are near impossible to source and the funding for them from the GMS contract is paltry. GPs are disenfranchised, demoralised, despondent and despairing about the future of General Practice in Ireland. Something has to change before it is too late.
The promise of negotiations on a new GMS contract have once again failed to materialise and there has been no meaningful dialogue on FEMPI reversal.
We petition the Government, Minister for Health Simon Harris and the Department of Health and HSE to finally value GPs in Ireland by resourcing GP appropriately, reversing the FEMPI cuts imposed on GPs that have brought the service to its knees around the country and by meaningfully engaging with GPs to negotiate a new GMS contract (to replace the existing 40 year old one) that will adequately resource and serve the communities that they are intended to provide for.
Anything less is simply unacceptable.
(Please note, this petition is not, nor should it be construed as, GPs collaborating or being anti-competitive in any way. This is a petition for anyone to sign to voice discontent over the lack of progress over GP service funding - it is not a method of collective negotiation and does not aim to replace work being done by IMO/NAGP, merely support it)
Updates
Reached 1,000 supporters
June 27, 2018
June 24, 2018
The exhaustion is setting in but we are inching toward one thousand signatures. We need to push the target number higher before the department can claim we are not paying attention.
Reached 100 supporters
June 20, 2018
June 17, 2018
The exhaustion is setting in but we are inching closer to the hundred mark. I need you to push this link to someone new right now because the silence from the department is still deafening.
213 Comments
We will soon see many GPs going exclusively private making the situation even worse. Urgent reversal government decade long GP policy of increased work for less money is needed. We have been drifting towardsthe waterfall for years and now the current pulling us over the edge is very strong.
People are waiting up to two weeks to get GP appointments. The service needs to be made more appealing for newly qualified GPS, and also the administration involved in medical practice makes it an unappealing prospect for young GPS to set up clinics.
As a new entrant hospital consultant I feel the way GPs are treated is disgraceful. While I find myself questioning my own choices on a daily basis - I just can’t figure out how those in power think general practice can actually survive nationally under current conditions
GPs are everyone's first resource for heslth care. My GP has literally saved my life and made my late wife's life so much easier in her last years. GPs MUST be properly funded. Doing so will SAVE the HSE money on hospital care.
It makes perfect sense to adequately fund GP's. They are the first point of contact for patients and act as a buffer for the emergency departments. Reduced GP services will result in a total melt down of A&E's all over the country!
Disproportionate cuts to rural and deprived general practice >50% impacts on patients, staff, GPs and their families. It's grossly unfair when FEMPI reversed for all other groups essentially without conditions. FEMPI reversal first then a new contract.
loads of people suffering from depression in rural areas and there first place to go to is rural GPs , I don't think the government is taking the suicide epidemic in this country seriously enough if they are not supporting the health service
Our GP service is vital in local towns and villages across Ireland its our first port of call and eases up Emergency Departments. Look after our existing doctors. And keep newly qualified ones in our Country. Make it worthwhile for them to stay.
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We will soon see many GPs going exclusively private making the situation even worse. Urgent reversal government decade long GP policy of increased work for less money is needed. We have been drifting towardsthe waterfall for years and now the current pulling us over the edge is very strong.