Kelly-Anne Speight hangs up her stethoscope in the Mayo GP practice she works at when she finishes her shift and walks the few minutes down to the River Moy.
“As soon as I finished work, I landed down at the quay, I was paddling on the water really quickly,” she said.
From Enniskillen in Co Fermanagh, Ms Speight moved to Ireland from Scotland in March this year to work as a general practitioner.
She now works across two practices: one in Ballina, Mayo and the other in Enniscrone, Co Sligo – working two days in each per week.
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Having studied and worked in Glasgow and Stirling for a number of years, the move was prompted by her partner being from Ballina, as well as hearing about the beauty of the west of Ireland.
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A keen endurance athlete, she thought she’d miss Scotland’s landscape, but Ireland also has its natural beauty, she said.
“I’m certainly learning that there’s plenty of hills in Ireland and beautiful coastal routes. We were down by the sea cliffs, we did Slieve League. And than in Ballina, you’re right at the River Moy,” she added.
But it is not just the landscape between the two states that is similar. The work is, too, making the transition quite simple. The main difference she has noticed is between the rural and urban practices, though she notices this between Mayo and Sligo, as much as between Ireland and Scotland.
“Stereotypically, in rural areas, you tend to get stoic farmers who tend to be a little bit later when presenting, so when they do they tend to be unwell. I quite like that as a challenge,” she said.
Dr Speight isn’t the only UK-based doctor who has made this move in recent times.
According to Dr Diarmuid Quinlan, medical director of the Irish College of GPs, there has been a recent increase in the number of UK doctors, mainly from England, who are seeking to work in Ireland.
Dr Quinlan said this is a result of GP employment difficulties in the NHS, combined with the close geographical proximity.
A recent survey by the British Medical Association of more than 1,400 family doctors found one in five GPs in England said they plan to change their career because they cannot find any or enough work as a doctor.
“We have a major shortage of GPs in Ireland. We currently have 4,600, and we probably need north of 6,500. We have mutual recognition for the Royal College of GPs qualification here in the Republic, so doctors from the UK would integrate into the Irish system seamlessly and be very welcome,” he said.
Earlier this month, the Department of Health announced a new scheme in a bid to improve access to locum cover for up to 239 GPs in rural and remote areas from this summer.
Under the scheme, the Health Service Executive (HSE) will bear the cost of securing the locum, ensuring GPs have the necessary support to maintain continuity of care to their patients in their communities.
Dr Quinlan said this scheme is “hugely welcomed”, adding that often doctors in these rural practices cannot take time off work due to an inability to find cover.
“What I would like to see is locums from the UK thinking: ‘Maybe I’ll come over to Ireland for the summer, get well-paid work, and a holiday at the same time’,” he said.
“We have an acute need for GP locums, particularly down the western seaboard and the midlands, which are fabulous places. So any GP who would like to come and work in Ireland, that would be very welcome.”
Caroline Puckering is one such individual. She has been working as a locum for just over two years in the UK, after completing her training there.
Originally from west Cork, she wants her three young children to know their Irish roots, and so she brings them back to Ireland every summer.
This summer, she has registered with the Medical Council and has begun interviewing for locum positions in Ireland. A permanent move to the Republic is also being considered, she added.
“The reasons I want to come is because I’m originally Irish, and I want my children to experience Ireland. So I’m going to locum a little bit and still continue to locum in the UK,” she said.
“There are lots of jobs for GPs in Ireland and they’re very familiar with UK GPs wanting to work in Ireland. In the UK, there’s a little bit of a GP job crisis so a lot of them are looking at coming to Ireland.”
Ms Speight experiences a lot of joy in her work since she moved to Ireland. The GP practices she works in “are really part of the community”.
“You really get to know your patients. There’s a lot of job satisfaction in that.”
