A Castlerea GP says delays in getting face to face appointments with doctors, and phone consultations, look set to continue for the foreseeable future.
Dr Madeleine Ni Dhalaigh was commenting on frustration expressed by some members of the public who believe the measures were only needed during the Covid pandemic.
Dr Ni Dhalaigh who's also a member of the IMO GP committee says she can easily understand that people don't like the phone consultations or delays, but there's little choice when surgeries are fully booked up.
Speaking on the Joe Finnegan show this morning Dr Ni Dhalaigh said most GP's don't like phone consultations, and have been trained to assess people in person rather than on the phone.
She says though that lack of GP's and more people retiring from the profession is putting serious pressure on those remaining.
'There's an increasing level of frustration reported by admin staff with patients phoning and getting y'know quite upset that they can't have a face to face appointment within the day, or within even a few days of making contact, but this is something that the public are going to have to realise, that as far as we can do we will see and provide a safe access to us.
Unfortunately the capacity issue remains , not only is it severe at the moment, it's only going to get worse with retirements and an increase in doctor visit cards.'
