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Dr. Maitiú Ó Tuathail (31) is only qualified as a GP for two years, but his impressive communication and leadership skills made him one of the best-known doctors in the country, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hailing from the Gaeltacht village of Lettermore in Galway, where his father owns the Tigh Plunkett pub, he is fluent in Irish and French, the latter thanks to his Bordeaux-born mother.
The Galway graduate does not have his own GP practice and works as a physician in a general practitioner practice in Ranelagh, Dublin.
He is involved with the Safetynet Primary Care charity, which provides health care to the homeless and minority groups, during the middle of the week.
He also works for the ambulance service occasionally and is the medical director for Heroes Aid, which helps raise funds to purchase PPE for frontline workers.
It was through his role as president of the National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP), a representative body for family doctors, that he is now making the news after it became known that Leo Varadkar, like Taoiseach in April 2019, leaked a draft of a revised contract for GPs that has yet to be fully released.
The NAGP, with around 2,000 members, was revived nearly a decade ago against a backdrop of falling incomes for GPs, hit by recession cuts imposed on the fees received by contract doctors for the HSE, for treating medical card holders and other services. . He was training as a GP at Athboy when he joined, after seeing the way patients were left waiting for services like vital diagnostic scans.
Dr. Ó Tuathail and other high-level members of the NAGP attended various meetings at the Health Department during 2018 to provide information on what they thought a new contract should include instead of a revised one, restore the rate cuts. They were strong on increased support for medical cardholders with long-term illnesses, something that was included in the final deal.
The Irish Medical Organization (IMO), as a long-standing union, led the way in the final negotiations, specifically the level of funding required.
NAGP stayed on the sidelines seeking meetings with Health Minister Simon Harris and watched the € 200 million deal being finalized behind closed doors. By April 5, IMO made public what was in the document, but the draft contract was still in the possession of the Department and IMO.
Therefore, Dr. Ó Tuathail used political contacts to see him in his role as GP leader.
Health officials wanted to publicly remain on the right side of the IMO, which had to sell the deal and for which the contract was seen as a major victory.
However, the NAGP leaders were under pressure from their own GP members, who were being asked to sign the contract and were calling for more information on finer details. The contract was seen as a good deal and a tour of medical meetings was planned.
Dr. Ó Tuathail had met Leo Varadkar through Mr. Varadkar’s partner cardiologist, Matthew. Both doctors worked at the Hospital de San Vicente. When Leo ran for leadership, he was recruited to work on his campaign, although he does not support any political parties.
There was internal turmoil in the NAGP for some time and it came to a head in late April when Dr. Ó Tuathail and other council members resigned saying they had serious concerns about the governance of the organization.
They turned their concerns over to the Office of Corporate Compliance.
The NAGP effectively collapsed and the roadshow never materialized. By late summer 2019, the GPs had signed up for the revised contract more or less en masse.
Dr. Ó Tuathail continued to be very active in the media. She is now a well-established GP voice, developing commentator skills during the abortion referendum and the CervicalCheck controversy.
However, it has been since the arrival of Covid-19 that he has gained a whole new profile and his Twitter video on how to wear a mask went viral and was viewed many millions of times around the world.
He is a regular in the press and on television on issues related to Covid-19 and how the public can reduce their risk. Dr. Óma Tuathail’s family has strong ties to France, where his sister works as a nurse. It is understood that his future ambition is to return to Lettermore and work as a GP after being inspired to study medicine by his local doctor.
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