The HSE has promised to expand the number of GP training places from 121 to 150 this year but this pledge has now been broken.

The Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) warned that doctors were already finding it difficult to recruit medical staff and there was a danger of a shortage of family medics.

The organisation’s chairman, Mark Walsh, said Ireland already had the second lowest GP-to-population ratio in the EU.

“The EU average is one GP per thousand of the population. The Irish ratio is less than half the EU average at 0.47 per thousand,” he said.

“Even at an annual intake of 150 GP trainees (which is the target for 2008) there will still be a shortfall in GPs over the next 10 years.

“If the demand is calculated on population growth alone, 2,868 GPs will be needed by 2015 — a projected shortfall of 224,” said Dr Walsh.

“This number rises to 3,643 if the demand grows in line with past growth of medical practitioners overall with a subsequent projected shortfall of up to 551.”

He pointed to reports indicating that demand for GPs would rise faster than population growth due to the development of primary care centres, the ageing population, ageing GPs and a move towards working less hours.

The decision to hold the number of trainee places at 121 this year was ” in direct contrast to government policy”, he said.  Read more