GPCareForAll to establish service in west Finglas

A new GP practice will open in a socio-economically deprived area of west Dublin in the coming months.

The facility is being introduced in west Finglas by GPCareForAll, a Dublin-based charity working to deliver healthcare in areas of deprivation. It will serve thousands of people who have not had an established local GP service for several years.

The charity already operates Summerhill Family Practice in inner city Dublin. This practice was established with philanthropic funding, GP Dr Austin O’Carroll told the Medical
Independent.

Dr O’Carroll, who sits on the board of GPCareForAll, said that its second practice would open in west Finglas in late 2025 or early 2026. The development comes following negotiations between the charity, the HSE and Department of Health. It is understood the HSE has agreed to fund the practice. “There is a hope that if we do future practices they [HSE] will fund other practices too,” Dr O’Carroll said. “People in these areas of deprivation have shorter life expectancies, worse health indices, and yet they tend to have less GPs.” Dr O’Carroll said it is likely the number of patients in the new practice would build up very quickly due to the anticipated demand.

The charity hopes to help address healthcare gaps in other areas of deprivation in the coming years.

“From a policy point of view they [HSE] know there’s an issue there. We have been highlighting this gap. We just want a solution. If we are part of the solution, that’s great, but if we’re not we don’t mind, as long as there is a solution. For example, if the HSE come up with a different method for getting GPs to those areas, that’s okay by us, but we’re campaigning to make sure the gap is addressed.”

Separately, a new paper from the Irish College of GPs has highlighted the barriers to GP care faced by patients, particularly those living in rural and deprived urban areas.

The document, titled Strengthening the Future of GP Care in Ireland, states that practices nationwide are “struggling with basics like finding locum cover, succession planning, and recruiting of staff to help deal with an ever-expanding workload”.

It puts forward five main priorities to strengthen the future of general practice, against the background of a growing and ageing population, delivering more complex care, and addressing the expectations of the next generation of GPs.

These priorities include the need for shared electronic health records; ensuring general practice is an attractive, supported career path; growing the GP workforce to meet patient needs; harnessing health data to guide resource planning; and embedding high-value audit, research and quality improvement activity in general practice, co-designed by GP teams and patients.