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The shortage of GPs would be alarming if people had not already got used to the idea of lengthy waits for appointments. Often, and increasingly, the visits are needless because no decision will be made anyway unless you see that very expensive consultant you are referred to and so on.

I spoke with a GP in a rural town a year or two ago and he told me what fascinated city medical students working with him for a stint was the decisions he made and the range of hands-on stuff he did, from stitching up to sometimes having to deliver a baby.

Doctors no longer do that kind of work, let’s face it. Nurses do more and more of the hands-on stuff. Now care and nursing assistants are doing some of the stuff nurses once did. Another category below the care assistants will have to be found when the points for the care assistants course goes up. And on, and on, and on. Soon nobody will be doing anything anyway – and we may as well stick to Dr Google.

I was intrigued last year to see how a rural practice in south Kerry was quite easily filled when a bureaucratic sticking plaster was removed and a Spanish doctor who was eminently qualified was allowed succeed to the post.

A Hungarian doctor is shortly to fill the Waterville position, is my understanding.  Two weeks ago, I asked the HSE where they advertise GP posts. I asked if they did so in line with EU rules on works contracts, which means that public contracts for goods and services over a certain value would have to be advertised across Europe in the Official Journal of the European Union. You can still advertise in the journal even if it is under the contract price, is my understanding.

The answer I got surprised me. The HSE has always argued that it advertises widely, tirelessly and “internationally” for GPs. Which I have no doubt it does. Except it is only advertising widely and tirelessly in Ireland and the UK. “What?” I asked. “You can’t be serious!”

Yes. The HSE is a depressingly serious organisation. Now, I do not keep a very close eye on the UK, I have little interest in the place, but even I know there is a dire shortage of GPs all over the UK. There is a dire shortage here. Full marks for the HSE then.

Meanwhile, this is the reply I got to my question on how GPs are recruited and advertised for:

The purpose of our recruitment is to ensure that eligible patients in the GMS scheme receive quality general practitioner medical services. Cork Kerry Community Healthcare locally and the HSE generally are fully aware of the need to promote and advertise all vacant permanent GMS panels both nationally and internationally. The standard practice is to place an advertisement in the Irish Medical Journal, the British Medical Journal, as well as national newspapers. If the first advertisement campaign is not successful it is repeated.

And there you have it.

The HSE also said the same job specification applies to all GP posts, whether the applicants are from within or outside Ireland. This ensures that all successful candidates are fully trained and experienced for the role.

They went on to tell me of the general requirements, which include ability to speak English.

Should an applicant meet all these requirements, be they Irish or otherwise, they would be considered for interview and appointment.

The bottom line in all of this is the HSE is not advertising Europe-wide for GPs. And if it did, it might well have better luck. The question is: why isn’t it? And why arent't GPs here encouraging such a move?

Meanwhile, despite the dire warnings about all the GPs who are going to retire in the future, when we might all be dead anyway, the HSE tells me, “as of this moment” there is only one area vacant, in Waterville, Co Kerry. An appointment date of early May for the new permanent GP has been agreed.