Government policy in relation to GP services is in ‘complete disarray', with many GPs already ‘overstretched and under-resourced', the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has insisted.

It made its comments in response to an announcement by the Government that free GP care is to be provided to people over the age of 70 from later this year.

Currently, people over the age of 70 are means tested to see if they are eligible for a full medical card or a GP-visit card. An estimated 40,000 people over the age of 70 who do not have either are set to benefit from this move.

As part of the plan, all people over the age of 70 will be eligible for at least a GP-visit card without having to undergo a means test. However, those on higher incomes will not receive full medical cards and will therefore not have the costs of their medicines covered.

The plan will cost some €15 million per year.

However, according to the GP Committee of the IMO, GPs are already trying to cope with increasing workloads and decreasing resources.

"The reality is that GPs are overstretched and under-resourced and priority must be given to providing services to those most in need. There are many aspects of this announcement that are of concern - not least the casual way in which it has been announced," commented Dr Ray Walley, chairman of the IMO's GP Committee.

He also said that GPs are ‘particularly concerned' that the Government ‘is using free GP-visit cards as an alternative to medical cards when the two are not comparable'.

"It is of little help to an elderly patient to have his GP visit paid for but no support for all the additional services available under medical cards including medication, non-medical support services and community services," Dr Walley noted.

He added that the IMO would be seeking an urgent meeting with the Minister for Health ‘to try to get them to clarify just what are the priorities of the Government in relation to general practice and what additional resources are planned to deliver such services'.

The decision to extend medical cards to the over-70s was made following discussions between the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, and the new leader of the Labour Party, Joan Burton.