{"id":637701,"date":"2026-10-22T05:36:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T05:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/637701\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T05:36:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T05:36:17","slug":"corporatisation-of-irish-gp-practices-raises-serious-concerns-about-primary-care-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/637701\/","title":{"rendered":"Corporatisation of Irish GP practices raises serious concerns about primary care \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Sir, \u2013 The proposed \u20ac350 million acquisition of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/centric-health-primary-care\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/centric-health-primary-care\">Centric Health<\/a> by a US healthcare group marks another significant step towards the corporatisation of Irish general practice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">General practice has traditionally been built on continuity of care, clinical independence and the long-standing relationship between doctors, patients and their communities. These are fundamental strengths of our healthcare system, not simply commercial assets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The increasing involvement of private equity and multinational healthcare corporations raises serious concerns about the future direction of primary care in Ireland. When healthcare becomes an investment vehicle, there is an inevitable tension between delivering patient-centred care and generating financial returns for shareholders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">While corporate investment may bring efficiencies and additional resources, we must question whether increasing market consolidation will ultimately improve accessibility, affordability and continuity of care, particularly in rural communities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Irish general practice should be driven by the needs of patients and communities, rather than the financial expectations of international investors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The long-term consequences of this transformation deserve far greater public debate. \u2013 Yours, etc, <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">DR JOE LOFTUS,<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">General practitioner<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Castlebar, <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Co Mayo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir, \u2013 The proposed \u20ac350 million acquisition of Centric Health by a US healthcare group marks another significant&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[129179,134,527,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-637701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-centric-health-primary-care","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}