Government urged to postpone extension free GP care to under-6s

Family doctors have called on the Government to postpone the proposal to extend free GP care to under-6s next year.

Delegates at the annual conference of the National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP) voted overwhelmingly for a motion calling on the Government to concentrate on resourcing general practice instead to reverse the damage caused by continuous funding cuts.

Some doctors favoured calling on the Government to withdraw the scheme altogether but a motion to this effect was narrowly defeated after speakers said such a stance could be misinterpreted in the media.

The conference also heard of plans for the NAGP to to team up with a small Cork-based trade union in order to gain access to a negotiating licence for its members.

The association has 1,200 members but does not hold a negotiating licence from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, although it has applied for one.

The Irish Medical Organisation, which represents over 2,000 GPs, has a licence and negotiates with the Department of Health on behalf of doctors.

The association revealed that it plans to form a federation with the left-wing Independent Workers’ Union (IWU), which is not under the umbrella of the main trade union body, Ictu.

An organisation requires at least 1,000 members to obtain a negotiating licence but there is no obligation on the State to grant one. The process of application takes 18 months.

Noel Murphy of the IWU told the conference the agreement would be "an arrangement of mutual convenience" under which its licence would be shared. He said the agreement was the only way the association would get a licence.

“We will cause no difficulties for the NAGP and hopefully it will cause no difficulties for us,” he told members who questioned the proposal.

The conference agreed to the change unanimously.

Earlier, Dr Jimmy Sheehan, founder of the Blackrock Clinic, told the conference co-payments in medicine were essential. No matter how poor a person was, they should have to make some small gesture in the form of co-payments for their treatment.

“Anything that’s totally free is abused,” he said.

Patients should have to carry their own insurance against medical malpractice, in the same way as they have house and car insurance, Mr Sheehan suggested.

Belmullet GP Keith Swanick drew applause from the 100 GPs present when he said former Minister for Health and GP James Reilly had done more damage to primary care than any other health minister in the history of the State.

Doctors needed to be “solutions-driven” and couldn’t always be seen as “whinging,” he warned. They needed to convince politicians that the problem of overcrowded hospital emergency departments would never be solved until primary care was sorted out.