A National GP shortage is seeing people unable to get blood tests or sick notes.
With the risk of current GP’s retiring and future doctors emigrating, the crisis may continue to worsen.
One potential patient told Dublin Live: “I know of other people who are the same, especially people coming in from other countries.
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“You can’t get a GP anywhere, you go to their online site and it says all their books are closed. Two of my GP’s say that the books are closed but one said they might have a new GP in July so I can check back then. It’s impossible.
“My girlfriend just wants a blood test, but she doesn’t have a doctor. How does she even get a normal blood test? There’s nothing you can do. If you’re sick, how are you meant to get a doctor's note?”
There are alternative solutions such as online GP’s and the Doctor on Call, but they can be more awkward to deal with.
“There’s a weird lack of GP’s. when you’re living here, working here, paying your rent and your taxes and you can’t get a doctor's appointment,” they continued.
“I don’t know where people are meant to go. I know there’s care doctors, like the emergency ones but they’re only at night and they’ll charge more.
“There’s a lack of security not having a doctor to go to, it’s bizarre. It’s a privilege to have one. There’s not enough doctors here.
"People who I know that are doctors, they want to leave the country because they don’t have the great treatment here either.
"So what happens to people who come to the country looking for a doctor or those who are born here?"
Meanwhile, Dr Diarmuid Quinlan, the Medical Director of the ICGP, said the problem is nationwide.
He told Dublin Live: “The ICGP is concerned that some patients are unable to register with a GP, in both rural and urban Ireland.
“Ireland has a shortage of GPs, we have 30% fewer per head of the population than in the UK.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated the shortage of both GPs and GP nurses.
“Furthermore, around 700 GPs, many in one or two GP practices, will retire in the coming years.
“The ICGP and HSE are working hard to substantially increase GP training places. While more GPs are being trained, the workload in GP practices has continued to expand.
“General practice delivers in excess of 30 million consultations per year, providing a ‘cradle to grave’ service. "
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