GPs have welcomed a commitment from the Department of Health and HSE to begin ‘substantive talks' on a new GP contract.

The current GP contract, which applies to around 3,000 GPs, is 40 years old and according to the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), a new contract is ‘badly needed'.

"The agreement to commence formal discussions on a complete new GP contract is critical to sustaining and developing general practice in Ireland. We need a modern contract for a modern GP service for our patients and for our members. It is badly needed and after eight years of no discussions and successive years of draconian cuts, we need to ensure that general practice is firstly stabilised then developed," commented Dr Ray Walley, chairperson of the IMO GP Committee.

He insisted that the system currently in place is ‘starved of resources' and patients are suffering as a result.

"Our GP members are under intolerable pressure with more and more emigrating, and the crisis in general practice is directly leading to pressures on the hospital system where it is much more expensive to treat patients. It is not simply a question of transferring resources from one part of the health system to another - the whole system is suffering from inadequate funding and patients are not being treated properly," Dr Walley said.

However he emphasised that GPs ‘can do more' if they have the proper resources.

"General practice has been effectively starved of resources with disproportionate cuts to the service of over €160 million in recent years. The current contract is outdated and does not reflect the complexity and workload of modern general practice," he said.

He noted that if universal healthcare is to be introduced, the existing service needs to be stablised.

"The delivery of GP services to the whole of the population is something we as GPs can wholeheartedly support, but only if it is done in an agreed, planned way with adequate budget allocations year on year. Unrealistic timeframes, inadequate resources and political promises are a recipe for disaster," Dr Walley pointed out.

He said that while the Government has already begun the process of providing free GP care to children under the age of six, GPs believe that any further extensions to this scheme should be based on income and medical need.

"This is the fairest way to deliver care. It would be great if there was the capacity or resources to do it all in one fell swoop but that is not the reality of the situation. The best way to tackle inequalities in health is to introduce GP care on an income and chronic disease basis in a planned way over a number of years," Dr Walley added.

Talks on the under-6s contract are continuing and talks on the new GP contract are due to begin next month.