GPs are demanding to be included on the Emergency Department Taskforce which aims to tackle the overcrowding and admissions crisis in hospitals.
General practitioners are excluded from the group - despite advice that patients should avoid emergency departments and seek treatment from their doctors in the first instance.
The National Association of General Practitioners says it welcomes comments by the Health Minister that more investment is needed in primary care in order to tackle the hospital crisis.
But Chris Goodey of the N-A-G-P says GPs must be invited to sit on the taskforce if Minister Varadkar is serious about change...
Meanwhile, the number of patients on trolleys and wards has dropped again, with 363 patients now waiting for treatment around the country.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation says 264 people are currently on trolleys - from a high last week of almost 500.
Nevertheless, Emergency department nurses at Galway University Hospital have voted in favour of industrial action over "unsafe" levels of overcrowding.
All 42 of the INMO’s members at the department are in favour of a work-to-rule - which will begin on February 3rd.
