According to Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, more than 1,000 GPs have agreed and signed up to free GP care for under-sixes.

Despite an extended deadline recently offered by the HSE, it has been announced that signed contracts in agreement with the policy will still be accepted after today.

Updating the public on the development, the official website for the Department of Health has published a three page letter which informs parents that registration is due to begin shortly while the new service will go into operation next month.

The department acknowledges that users may initially experience confusion if their GP's contract arrived late and therefore does not appear on the website, but the aim is to allow users to select a preferred GP in their locality.

According to the website, the registration process is user-friendly and is 'easier than booking an airline ticket.'

The proposed service has experienced backlash since its suggested implementation, with health spokesman for Fianna Fáil, Billy Kelleher, insisting that the fact less than half of family doctors had signed up mere weeks before parents were due to avail of the service illustrates the numerous flaws associated with the policy.

The policy has divided members of the medical community, with the chairman of the National Association of General Practioners, Dr. Andy Jordan, previously asserting: "With hundreds of patients on trolleys in our emergency departments every day and medical cards being removed from or denied to cancer patients, it is not appropriate to invest scarce public funds into providing free care to any group of people who do not have a genuine medical or financial need."

 

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