GP services in Ireland are in crisis, with young, highly trained doctors choosing to emigrate and older experienced doctors choosing to retire early, it has been claimed.

According to the National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP), which held its AGM at the weekend, GPs services are severely under-resourced as a result of FEMPI (Financial Emergency Measures in Public Interest) cuts imposed in recent years.

"Since 2013, the NAGP has warned that general practice is in crisis as a result of FEMPI. We are now seeing a broken health system nationwide where new
patients are unable to sign on to GP practices as they are beyond capacity," commented NAGP president, Dr Emmet Kerin.

He noted that, for example, Macroom in Cork ‘is completely closed to new patients'.

Speaking at the conference, Junior Health Minister, Jim Daly, told delegates that the Minister for Health, Simon Harris, ‘has been in negotiation with Cabinet for the past few weeks and that there has been agreement that FEMPI will be reversed, but that it will be linked to service improvements across general practice which will benefit patients across all communities'.

However, the NAGP insisted that FEMPI needs to be reversed immediately and should not be linked with additional work.

It said that GPs are already at maximum capacity and burnout is now a major issue among its members.

"Our young GPs are voting with their feet and emigrating while our more seasoned GPs are retiring earlier than planned," the association said.

The NAGP AGM was held in Cork.