New report shows growing medical workforce and increasing workload pressures

There are increasing workload pressures on the “growing and diversifying” medical workforce, according to the newly published Medical Workforce Intelligence Report 2025.

The Medical Council’s report found that in 2025, there were 22,257 clinically active doctors practising medicine in Ireland. The proportion of clinically active female doctors rose to 47.6 per cent, representing a slight but steady increase in recent years.

The mean age of doctors was 43.6 years, with approximately one in five (20.1 per cent) aged 55 or older and approaching typical retirement age. The gender split was almost even across all age groups except the 55 or older cohort, where 66 per cent were male.

There were 5,017 doctors self-reporting as GPs, with GP numbers up 5.3 per cent on the previous year. Some 78.9 per cent of GPs were on the specialist division, and 19.3 per cent on the General Division.

Some 22.1 per cent of doctors self-reported working more than 48 hours a week on average, a slight improvement on 2024.

In relation to services provided, the report found “persistent barriers to safe patient care”.

Only one-third of doctors (30.7 per cent) reported never experiencing difficulties providing patients with sufficient levels of care. More than one-quarter (27.6 per cent) experienced such difficulties at least once a week or more often.

In response to the report, the IHCA noted that one in 12 doctors (9 per cent) told the Council that they experience difficulties providing patients with sufficient care at least once a day.

“It is not surprising to learn that [so many] doctors report experiencing difficulties at least once a day providing a patient with the sufficient level of care needed. This is the lived experience of so many of my specialist colleagues,” said IHCA President Prof Gabrielle Colleran.

“While ‘pressure on workloads’ was the single most frequently quoted barrier, the fact that ‘time spent on bureaucracy/administration’ was a close second highlights yet again the need to accelerate the rollout of electronic health records across the health system as a matter of urgency. The current fragmented nature of our digital technology in the health service continues to impact directly on patient care, and the roll-out of the national [electronic health record] cannot come soon enough.

“The Association is particularly concerned with the finding that 41 per cent of all doctors who report working more than 48 hours on average per week are spending more than 48 hours in direct patient care. This means these doctors are not only working excessive hours, but are doing so in intensely pressurised conditions, and are not being given adequate time by their employer to keep up with the necessary administrative tasks that are required to make the job both sustainable and safe for patients.”