Putting Doctors First

	Ireland's Association of General Practitioners

Conference Organiser, Dr Des Moran, says
It is imperative that we have a strong AGP and the focus should be on…

PUTTING DOCTORS FIRST

THIS year's Association of General Practitioners' AGM will be held in the beautiful and historically significant town of Sligo…a fact that fills conference organizer Dr Des Moran with equal amounts of pride and trepidation.

Dr Moran was born and bred in what is now a bustling and very metropolitan Sligo, where he still works and lives.

To him, the AGM represents a great opportunity, not just to thrash out the problems besetting medicine today, but also because if affords a platform to show off this beautiful and rugged part of the country to his colleagues...a part of the country that he calls his own.

"We plan to do many things on the weekend of the 10th-12th of October," Dr Moran told Health Watch. "But high on the list will be showing off and opening up the beauty of the West of Ireland."

Apart from his skills as an event manager, Dr Moran has a few other more pertinent strings to his bow. He is perhaps best known for his sterling work on negotiating a new contract for coroners. But the AGP has been part of his life for many years; maybe because it reflects the rights of the individual.

"In my opinion, support from the main doctors' union body is almost non-existent. That places for GPs in a very dangerous position. We need strong representation. We need an organization that is going to fight tooth and nail for its members and put doctors first in all negotiations and, at the moment, I don't feel we have that.

"That's the real value and worth of the AGP. It's an organization that is not afraid to tell it like it is. The AGP has never been afraid to tell it like it is. But, more importantly, the AGP has always got results."

He feels that medicine - and General Practice in particular - has been a bit stagnant over the last number of years.

"There's no doubt but we need to reincentivise General Practice.

"We need to be constantly looking at fee structures and career structures and trying to find ways of making them better."

He sees education as playing a major role in the future of not just medicine, but also the AGP.

"If we are to reincentivise medicine, this organization should be looking at a greater role in the education and training of doctors. A lot of what we were taught in medical school you'd have to query today

"We need to look at areas like genetics, the environment and nutrition. We should have educational programmes which bring practicing doctors up to speed on these vital issues. That's a role for the AGP.

"But I'd go further by saying we should have a say in setting up a revised curriculum for medical schools."

It's not a measure of control, but rather one of hope … a hope born out of over 30 years' experience.

"My personal hope for the profession would be to find a way to stimulate people to think laterally and to develop new vision in an ever changing environment," says Dr Moran.

The AGP represents much more than just a forum for meeting colleagues and discussing mutual problem and, more importantly, viable solutions. It's an annual chance for individuals in the profession to lend support and encouragement to themselves.

"It's an opportunity to send out a message that we are there for one another and, no matter what, we intend to stick together."

Dr Moran is a little concerned at what he calls 'the lack of support' shown to doctors working on the front lines.

"If the IMO continues to lose focus has it has been, doctors are going to find themselves in a very stick position. That's why we need a strong AGP."
But he's not content just to hold up the AGP as a viable alternative body simply because it's there.

"It has to be good value for money, with an affordable executive. It also has to be proactive in the media, building up the name of the organization and sending the message that we have an opinion on what's happening within the profession and we will not sit idly by and let change wash over us. We are a powerful group and the sooner we realize that the better."

If he had one message for the profession, it would be this: "Have the courage of your convictions".

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