Everyone over 70 will be entitled to free GP treatment from Sunday under a deal worked out yesterday.
Meanwhile, the latest waiting list figures show that 26,382 people were waiting for hospital treatment at the end of March.
The Irish Medical Organisation is to ballot its GP members on the new deal which will see an extra 33,000 people over 70 qualifying for free treatment.
The deal is being recommended for acceptance and, pending the outcome of a ballot, doctors are being asked to treat patients over 70 for free from Sunday - the deadline set by the Government in the Budget.
However, doctors did not succeed in getting agreement that they would be paid under the medical card scheme every time they treat one of the new patients. From this, it appears likely that they will continue to be paid an annual fee as is the case with other categories of patients.
There was also no firm undertaking on an important IMO plank - extending the medical card to people on low incomes who do not now qualify for it. Dr James Reilly, chairman of the IMO's GP committee, said last night that the organisation was not happy with this and would continue to highlight the plight of people on low incomes denied the medical card.
Yesterday's waiting list figure represents a fall of 23 per cent in the number of people waiting for hospital treatment compared to a year earlier.
But the Minister acknowledged that waiting list figures could be misleading. There is evidence that some people on waiting lists have already received treatment privately or, for one reason or another, should not be on the list.
The process of combing through the lists - called "validation" - and removing those who should not be on them can give the impression that more people are being treated than is the case.
The figures released yesterday show the following reductions in the waiting list compared to March 2000: cardiac surgery 52 per cent, gynaecology 49 per cent, ophthalmology 29 per cent, orthopaedics 27 per cent, ENT 27 per cent.
It is likely that some of these reductions were achieved by sending patients to private hospitals for treatment paid for by the State.
The shortage of beds, with large numbers of beds taken up by emergency cases, is among the important reasons for the crowded waiting lists.
This week a cancer patient in Dublin was promised a private bed from Monday at health board expense because the Mater Hospital could not provide her with a public bed.
It is understood that a public bed became available for her yesterday and that she has commenced her treatment.
This is believed to be at least the third time that her treatment has had to be cancelled because her bed was taken up by emergency cases, that she was promised a private bed and that a public bed subsequently became available.
While yesterday's figures tell us that 26,382 people were awaiting treatment in March, they do not tell us what matters most to those people - how long they were waiting.
pomorain@irish-times.ie