The State's first trade union exclusively for general practitioners has been formed and will now seek a negotiating licence from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
The trade union application by the newly formed Alliance of Family Doctors (AFD) for trade union membership was accepted by the registrar of friendly societies on September 13th. The group brings together the Association of General Practitioners (AGP) and the National Association of Independent General Practitioners, whose combined membership represents 1,100 of the 2,062 family doctors currently practising in the Republic.
Up to now, negotiations on behalf of GPs has been carried out by the Irish Medical Union, whose membership covers a wide diversity of medics.
AGP spokeswoman Dr Mary Grehan said the new union had been formed because of long-running dissatisfaction among family doctors at the quality of representation they received.
The AGP was formed in 1987 by members who left the IMO because of its handling of the Government's imposition of withholding tax on GPs. The NAIGP was formed in the mid-1990s by other disgruntled family doctors who left the IMO.
"The decision of the registrar of friendly societies means we now have the right to call a strike and be protected by trade union legislation," Dr Grehan said. The next step of securing a negotiating licence should not provide any difficulty for the AFD, which already satisfies the criteria.
Top of the agenda for the new union will be the issue of doctors not being allowed to sell the goodwill of their GMS practices. At present a doctor who has built up a large GMS patient list over years of hard work and decides to retire or leave the area can sell the goodwill of his private practice, but not of his GMS practice.
The GMS list is returned to the local health board which advertises the panel of patients and then awards them to another doctor.
"We are very peeved about this and we are still seeking legal advice on the matter," Dr Grehan said.