Get well wishes from the nation

TOPPING the Budget wish list of health representatives is a plea to the Government to fulfil its promise to extend the medical card scheme to an extra 200,000 people.

Family doctors, consultants and patients’ groups were devastated when the November Estimates failed to make any provision for extending the GMS scheme, first promised at the launch of the Government’s Primary Care Strategy in 2001 and reiterated in its election manifesto in 2002.

Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) chairperson Dr Richard Brennan said failure to extend the scheme would create an even greater inequality within the health service.