Over 400,000 people were granted a GP Visit Card in yesterday's Budget but one local doctor is warning that the system is already at capacity and won't be able to cope with the measure.
Dr Aideen Brides is a GP in Monaghan and she says there is a crisis within the service at the moment. Speaking on this afternoon's Wider View, Dr Brides highlighted how people with free care attend their GP more frequently.
She pointed to the "struggle" in getting GPs into practice in the first instance and to that of people trying to find a doctor in their locality - because services are at capacity.
Dr Brides added that two GPs are needed now to replace one because of the additional pressures in the sector from the hospital crisis and the number of people on waiting lists in primary care.
"An issue also is that most of us are in buildings that are at capacity. So, even if we were to take on extra secretaries, extra nurses or other staff we simply don't have the space for them," she continued. "It's a difficult on and while we would all love to see universal care coming in, we simply don't have the capacity for that at the moment."
