The Irish GP

EVERY DAY of the week, some 50,000 people consult a doctor in Ireland; that’s one million a month, according to Prof Tom O’Dowd, mastermind of a new exhibition, General Practice, in Dublin’s Gallery of Photography, highlighting the work of Irish GPs across the State.

Taken by award-winning photographer Fionn McCann over a period of two years, the photographs give a unique insight into the work of five Irish practices from inner city and suburban Dublin, to Kildysart in Clare, Mallow in Cork and Arranmore Island in Donegal.

The practices vary from rural GP home surgeries and day clinics to a state-of-the art urban health centre. It is the first time such a record of private encounters has been taken here.

“I never realised that the most important thing that GPs do is to listen to what people tell them.

“They’re like Sherlock Holmes, trying to elucidate from the person exactly what is wrong with them before deciding on a course of action,” says McCann who found the home visits and the unpredictability of each day fascinating.

“The openness of people allowing us to sit in on very private issues was unexpected and impressive.”

Taken in mostly black and white, the images capture the intimacy and almost confessional element of the relationship between patients and their doctors.

“It shows how much a GP can do – from psychological and emotional help to clinical assessment, minor surgery, and prescribing – the breadth of what could happen in one day was very interesting. The doctors never knew what ailments could come through their door,” says McCann.

“We tried to cover a broad demographic from rural to urban to get an accurate reflection of contemporary Irish society.”

The scale of medication stacked from floor to ceiling in one surgery is striking.

The project has been an idea gestating in O’Dowd’s mind for nearly 30 years, for as long as he has practised as a GP.

Professor of General Practice in Trinity College Dublin, he explains that the project was originally inspired by a book, considered one of the most important ever written about general practice, called The Fortunate Man by John Berger who followed a GP in the Forest of Dean in the UK in the 1960s.

“I always had the idea of bringing medicine into the public square. It’s the most personal thing I have ever done.

“With GPs everybody feels they know what goes on in their surgeries, but not what happens to other people. I wanted to show that diversity. And it is cradle to grave stuff from a six-week- old baby to an old lady having her hand bandaged. You see people in their own environment. It is Ireland in a moment in time.”

He also points out that some of these practices may not continue. “So many patients take having their doctor for granted but it may get more difficult to get people to work in these areas.

“Having such a service is world class social capital in action.”

Ireland currently trains about 153 medical students annually for general practice, a figure that has grown in the past two or three years.

The exhibition marks the closing event of the tercentenary celebrations of TCD’s medical school.

General Practice will run at the Gallery of Photography in Meeting House Square, Temple Bar from May 16th to 27th.