Sir, – A recent survey of GP trainees by the Irish College of General Practitioners shows that only a quarter definitely plan to stay in Ireland, mainly due to an uncertain future for GPs here. This must be worrying for a Government that is promising free GP care to all.
The ones to suffer the most will be the elderly, those with chronic illness and the terminally ill as they will lose the continuous, personalised GP care that benefits them the most. As in the hospitals, the HSE will be left trying to employ a succession of locum doctors at even greater cost to the exchequer. A no-win situation. – Yours, etc,
Dr ELUNED LAWLOR,
Loughboy Medical Centre,
Kilkenny.
Sir, – John Collins (September 2nd) suggests that junior doctors, as "high earning-power graduates", should give back years of service to the State in return for the cost of their training. Mr Collins, like many others, may not be aware that up to one-third of current medical graduates did the four-year graduate entry medicine course, fees for which can be €16,000 a year and have left some, like me, over €100,000 in debt.
This scheme was set up following the Fottrell report’s prediction of a worrying shortage of Irish doctors. Sadly, there is no tax relief on our repayments for these educational loans, which most of us will be paying back for the next decade. The result is that many of us are forced to go abroad, where pay is better, so that we do not default on our loans. – Yours, etc,
Dr ERICA COUGHLAN,
Newtown Hill,
Tramore, Co Waterford.