GP training scheme funding
Deputy Burke said an Irish College of General Practitioners training scheme for doctors from outside the EU has been halted because funding is not confirmed. The Minister said the issue was news to him, that he was meeting the ICGP shortly, and that there had never been any question of lacking funding.
Last year, the Irish College of General Practitioners, ICGP, started a training scheme where it was bringing people in from outside the EU. More than 100 individuals joined that two-year scheme, which is intended to allow them to practise as GPs here in Ireland. In fact, in our city of Cork we now have a doctor who qualified in Ukraine working on the northside providing care to people from Ukraine. The problem is that, as of January, the ICGP has abandoned the interviewing of people for the coming year in this regard because the funding for this scheme has not been confirmed. The ICGP has been asked to increase the numbers it takes in from 100 to 150, but there has been no confirmation that funding will be provided and it has put off the interview process until April until this situation can be clarified. I did get a reply from the Department but the ICGP is still telling me it has got no confirmation that funding will be definitely provided.
Comment on this
It said it has agreed to the increase, but it has not confirmed that funding will be provided. The ICGP has abandoned its plans to interview people. We cannot afford to have this happen. We could have more than 100 new GPs coming in every year from now on under this scheme.
Comment on this
I thank the Deputy. I have to say this is news to me. I am meeting representatives of the ICGP here in about two and a half hours. I have also spoken to them on the phone regarding this scheme in respect of deploying GPs to the Iveragh Peninsula and around the country, so there has never been any question about the lack of funding. In fact, my ask of the ICGP will be to see if we can go from having 150 people on this training scheme to having 300 or 400 people participating. It is a very successful scheme in respect of people from South Africa and other places. The Deputy should rest assured that not only will the ICGP be funded to bring in the numbers of people he referred to, but I will be asking the organisation if it can double the number of those on the training course to address the shortages of GPs in some inner-city and more rural locations around the country.