Celbridge GP tops Kildare GMS fee list
KILDARE'S top earning GMS doctor works long hours and says he is not going to retire at normal retirment age.
On Monday, the Irish Times newspaper published a table of the top hundred highest earning practices and it showed that well known Celbridge general practitioner, Dr. Thomas V. Walsh, popularly known as Vincent Walsh, earned €515,138 in 2008 and was placed at number thirty seven in the list.
Around 2,000 family doctors get fees under the scheme and they range from a €100 a year to in the case of one Dublin 7 practice, just over one million.
Two Athy doctors also featured prominently on the list. One was Dr. JP. Mac Dougald whose practice received €488,660 and Dr. Giles O'Neill who got €475,130.
Clane based Dr. Francis Xavier Flanagan received €461,212, coming in 78th lost of the top earning practices.
The fee amounts are paid for practices not for individual doctors and the fees involved are paid via an agreement with the State.
As the debate over income continues, the Irish Medical Organisation also says that 30% of the total could go on administration and that fees to over 70's have been effectively cut in half.
It also says that another 8% was cut from all State fees for GP's in March.
The practices are essentially businesses.
Dr. Vincent Walsh is a well known in Celbridge for putting in long hours but also as a property owner.
He was an unsuccessful bidder when the Main Street home of the late Senator Kathleen Walsh was sold to the developer, Devondale, relatively recently.
A native of Celbridge, Dr. Walsh told the Leader this week there there are two other doctors working in his practice and four other in administration, a total of seven people in all.
His personal Monday to Friday working schedule formally runs from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and, he said, he is usally at work until 9 p.m.
On Saturday, he works 9 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. and on Sunday from 11am to 1 pm, though that can run until 2 p.m., he said.
The other two doctors work from Monday to Friday.
One informed source said he did the work of three doctors, clocking up around 80 hours Monday to Friday with more on the weekend.
Dr. Walsh could not estimated how many GMS patients he had but it could be up to 2,500. There are also private patients. "It is hard work but I enjoy it," said Dr. Walsh, who started work as a GP in 1976 after graduating from UCD.
Generally, getting to the point where one can set up a practice is a long haul. Following the initial medical degree course of seven years, one has to work for others for at least four years before becoming being allowed to set up a practice of one's one, possibly around the age of thirty.
Dr. Walsh does not sound as if he will hanging up bag at the normal retirement age. "I want to keep going," he said.
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Thursday 17 May 2012
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