The widening of the criteria of free GP visit cards will “lead to very significant problems”, a GP has predicted.
In Budget 2023, the Government announced that people who earn €46,000 or less would be eligible for free GP visits from April this year.
All six and seven-year-olds were included in the scheme at the end of 2022 and around half a million additional people are now eligible for free GP care.
At the time, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly lauded the policy as “a game changer for our health service” but it has since emerged as a key point of contention between the Government and the Irish Medical Organisation.
Minister Donnelly is due to address the IMO’s annual general meeting today and members say they are struggling to cope with higher demand for their services.
“Today, we will have the Minister who will be coming and we will try and convince him that this capacity issue is very serious,” IMO GP Sub-Committee member Dr Denis McCauley said.
“That the plans they have at the present minute aren’t working and that the politically generated health crisis that is going to come through the issuing of half a million doctor visit cards will, I think, be the zenith of the failure of health policy and will lead to very significant problems.”
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly. Picture by: Leah Farrell/RollingNewsOver the winter, Irish hospitals came under huge pressure amid a surge of COVID-19 and flu patients; the crisis has since receded but the IMO believes lack of capacity in Irish hospitals remains an issue.
“I think the main focus is on the capacity of the Irish health service to meet the demand that is presently there,” Dr McCauley said.
“Yesterday, we heard some very sobering intimation from all the relevant stakeholders - such as up to one in 10 people in the hospital at the present minute are being treated either on a trolley or a bed.”
Last year, the HSE announced it planned to recruit 15,500 staff members by 2035 in order to meet a growing demand for healthcare.
Main image: A doctor and patient.
