Patients are being turned away in Cork due to a lack of doctors

A CORK GP has warned that the General Practice service is in crisis and patients are being turned away due to a lack of local doctors.
The stark message came after the HSE revealed that two national and international recruitment campaigns to fill a vacant GP position in Youghal failed to attract a single application.
Dr Declan Mathews, of Emmet Place Family Practice in Youghal, said: “This crisis has been coming down the line for GPs for a while. We first saw the difficulties in rural areas, now it’s in towns and creeping into cities.
“It’s becoming impossible to recruit GPs. They’re turning to Australia or Canada, and it’s nothing to do with money. The working conditions are intolerable and the workloads are increasing.”
Dr Mathews also warned of burn-out in the profession and that increasing workloads could lead to mistakes.
The retirement on May 18 of a GP in Youghal led to her patients being divided among the other six GPs in the area.
“We tried to point out that we’re already