A leading clinician has said free GP care “should be a given for everybody” and the Irish Government should “bite the bullet” to bring Ireland in line with all other EU countries by introducing free care at the point of entry to the heath system.

Ireland must “fix primary care so that people get the care they need at the point of entry,” Orla Hardiman, Professor of neurology in TCD and consultant neurologist at Beaumont, told Newstalk Breakfast today. If that was available then ”we would fix the hospitals straight away, we would fix many of the problems that we have in the hospitals if people aware able to access GPs free of charge rather than have to go to hospitals,” she added.

The future of Ireland’s health system was discussed last night at Glenties, with Health Minister Leo Varadkar announcing he would be extending free to GP care to under 12s and eventually to under 18s. 

The stumbling blocks to plans for free GP care mostly financial, but the overall long-term financial effect would be positive, Dr Hardiman said, due to the knock on effects later in the health system.

“We have to get around this idea of it being too expensive and therefore we can’t afford it. This is something we should have done a long time ago.”

“In the longer term it’s actually cost effective and in fact cheaper.”

Ireland is the only country in Europe without free care at the point of entry to the system and needs to join what is taken as a given in other EU nations, Dr Hardiman said.

“We had the troika over telling us how to manage our country but all the members of the troika come from European countries. Free GP care is a right in those countries,” Dr Hardiman said.

Listen to the full interview with Dr Hardiman below

Speaking to the Pat Kenny Show here on Newstalk, Health Minister Leo Varadkar says it was always the government's intention to expand the free GP scheme.