A survey by CorkBeo of 27 general practices in the city found that only two - Broadale Medical Centre Douglas and the Park Family practice in Ballyphehane are currently able to accept new patients
Many are blaming the pressure of Covid-19 but the situation has long been in existence in Cork due to a shortage of trained GPs and many more choosing to emigrate rather than set up a practice in Ireland
The shortage of doctors has also long been highlighted in relation to staffing the South Doc service
Speaking on The Neil Prendeville Show on Cork's RedFM Dr Nuala O'Connor from the Elwood Medical Practice in Douglas admitted that Covid-19 has opened up the gaps that have been in our health service for over a decade:
"The Irish College of General Practitioners and the Irish Medical Organisation have been talking about this for the last 10 years, because we haven't trained enough doctors.
And also, what has happened is we lost a lot of doctors to going abroad, essentially, right across the health service we need more people. We have gaps in our health service, which I suppose what happened with COVID is it really opened up the cracks that we have within our healthcare service."
