There was reduced pressure on GP out-of-hours services over the Christmas period following implementation of the IMO GP Winter Agreement, the Medical Independent (MI) has been informed.
Dr Ken Egan, Mayo-based GP and Chair of the National Association of GP Co-ops, told MI that co-ops managed well over the holiday period.
“Getting GPs to do extended hours has made a huge difference and worked very well,” Dr Egan said.
The IMO GP Winter Agreement, which commenced on 8 December and runs until 15 February, was negotiated in November.
It outlined that participating practices provide an additional 20 hours of in-person respiratory/acute clinics over the 10-week period outside of normal surgery hours.
Each consultation during the 20 hours is paid at the special-type consultation (STC) rate of €41.63.
Furthermore, the deal included that each GMS GP in participating practices would receive a grant of €2,500 per GP, while single-handed GPs would receive a grant of €3,000.
According to NEDOC Operations Manager Ms Arlene Fitzsimons, demand on the service, which covers Meath, Monaghan, Cavan and Louth, was similar to that experienced in 2023.
“We had additional resources to manage the anticipated demand and that resulted in fewer delays in callback times and appointment times,” Ms Fitzsimons told MI.
“So while there were some delays there were not as many as there could have been because we had so many additional resources on hand. That included additional GPs, call handlers, and supervisors.”
While Christmas Day at the co-op was quiet, there was a surge on St Stephen’s Day, which was the busiest day for the service over the period.
From 24–29 December (Wednesday evening until Monday morning when GP surgeries reopened), over 2,300 patient contacts were recorded. GPs managed over 1,800 of those contacts or 78 per cent, Ms Fitzsimons said.
On St Stephen’s Day, a total of 720 patients contacted the service and 78 per cent of those were seen by GPs.
On New Year’s Day and over the following weekend, NEDOC recorded 1,700 patient contacts and around 1,300 of those were seen by a GP.
Ms Fitzsimons attributed the ease in pressure on services to a combination of factors overall.
These included the additional resources put in place by the co-op, the GP agreement to extend day-time surgery hours, and improvements to the NEDOC phone system.
Prof Ray Wally, Department of General Practice at University College Dublin, described the GP deal as “sensible”.
However, he said that arrangements to provide extra clinics in surgeries during winter months and during peak periods of respiratory illness should be put in place much earlier in future to allow GPs to plan better.
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