Sir, – The OECD has just released the 2014 version of its annual Health at a Glance document. It states that the average Irish doctor only provided 1,224 clinical consultations annually. This equates to between five and six consultations daily, clearly not reflecting reality. That data comes from the 2010 National Quarterly Household Health Survey performed by the Central Statistics Office.
In 2013 we published in the Irish Medical Journal the results of an audit of the practice records of 20,700 adult patients spread over the country and found that the average patient attends their GP 5.2 times a year.
This is slightly less than the UK consultation rate. It equates to each wholetime equivalent GP providing 33 consultations a day or a sum total of over 460,000 consultations in general practice per week. And that figure does not include any consultations with hospital doctors.
The problem with the 2010 CSO survey is that it demands recollection of the number of times during the past 12 months a person had consulted a general practitioner or had visited a hospital specialist as an outpatient, which is subject to a massive degradation of recollection.
Since 2006 most European countries have used four-week recollection in their national health surveys but our national surveys are based on 12-month recollection, a significant difference which probably explains the serious discrepancy.
We would implore the health planners to examine the data they collect, the method of collection and the potential outcomes of misrepresenting the true nature and productivity of both general practice and hospital activity, so that we can plan accurate delivery of care, before all our doctors have left these shores. – Yours, etc,
Dr WILLIAM BEHAN,
Walkinstown,
Dublin 12;
Dr DAVID MOLONY,
Mallow,
Co Cork.