Doctors are taking to the streets of Dublin in their hundreds this afternoon to appeal for money to be put into general practice to make it function again.
General practice is being destroyed, said the chairman of the National Association of General Practitioners (NGAP), Dr Andrew Jordan.
He said the protest outside the Dáil was the only way they could highlight to the Government that general practice was dying.
Dr Jordan said funding for GPs over the last ten years had increased from about €450m to €550m but in that time the number of people covered by the State's medical card scheme had doubled.
"For that figure to be what it should be would mean that it should be up at between €900m and €1bn. So per patient, the payment has gone down 38%," he said.
The NGAP says there is a recruitment crisis, with around half of new graduates emigrating to earn better pay in another country.
The NGAP says there are 26 communities across Ireland without a GP with 70% of general practices outside of Dublin not taking on new patients as they are at capacity.
