GPs offered a fortune to work abroad

That’s according to Galway West General Election Independent candidate Senator Fidelma Healy Eames, who claimed that Fine Gael’s pledge to increase the number of doctors in the country should ‘not be taken too seriously’.

'This Government has allowed a GP shortage crisis to develop. Rural GPs can't cope – look at Clifden and North Connemara – and so many of our young GPs are being enticed abroad by very exciting offers.

“Campaigning in Moycullen last evening, I learned about a young GP being offered the equivalent of €300,000 per year plus an extra €100,000 of a bonus after five years working in Canada. This is not a rare story. How can Ireland compete with offers like this!” she said.

“GPs are the backbone of local primary care centre – how will we ever realise that rollout if we don't have the GPs?  Ireland is fast losing the battle because of the deafness of this Government and the Minister for Health and his Department since 2011.

“I am raging to think as a nation that we have let a situation like this develop. Local primary care centre are the only answer to the A&E trolleys' epidemic.

“Incompetence is at the core of this serious blunder,” said the Senator.

The Oranmore-based public rep claimed that the promises made on GP care in Fine Gael’s election literature were already reneged on in the past.

“What really shocked me about that story is this same promise was also included in the 2011 Programme for Government but that promise seems to have died there like many others.”

“I must assume that the leaflet had already gone to press and the printing and distribution could not be stopped before it was reported last Sunday that not one single new GP training position has been created in the past five years despite a well signalled developing crises in the shortage of GPs,” she said.