Sir, - My concern as a GP of 40 years’ standing is that the proposed changes to services will bring a huge increase in workload and destroy existing general practice. A practice with 1,000 medical card patients who each have an average of six visits a year, and a 1,000 patients without medical cards who visit twice a year, has a total work load of 8,000 visits. When the no card group receives a card their visiting rate will also go from two to six visits a year bringing the year total for the practice up to 12,000 visits a year. The Minister is determined to introduce free GP care. It will not be the care we are used to. Yours, etc,
DR KEN EGAN,
Ballindine,
Co Mayo