Westmeath has almost 370 doctors

There were 369 clinically active doctors practising in Westmeath in 2025, including 118 GPs, according to a new report from the Medical Council.

The Medical Workforce Intelligence Report 2025 shows Westmeath accounted for 1.7% of the 22,257 doctors who were clinically active in the State last year.

The county had more practising doctors than any of the other three midland counties – there are 306 in Offaly, 296 in Laois and just 48 in Longford. Westmeath also had more than Meath, which had 320 doctors, while neighbouring Roscommon had 100.

Westmeath’s 118 GPs represented 2.4% of the national GP workforce of 5,017. That was higher than the numbers recorded in Offaly (74), Laois (80), Longford (46) and Roscommon (46), although considerably below Meath’s 146 GPs.

The report highlights significant pressures facing Ireland’s medical workforce, as more than one in five doctors nationally (22.1%) reported that they worked more than 48 hours a week on average.

Almost 30% of clinically active doctors were aged 55 or older, while the proportion who qualified outside Ireland, the UK and EU continued to increase. In 2025, 29.5% of doctors had an international basic medical qualification, compared with 27.8% in 2024 and 23.3% in 2022.

The Medical Council also found that 27.6% of doctors nationally experienced difficulties providing sufficient care at least once a week. The most commonly reported barriers were workload pressures, bureaucracy and administration, and overcrowding.

Among GPs, 34.7% reported difficulties providing sufficient care at least once a week, with bureaucracy and administration and workload pressures among the leading concerns.