Ireland is facing a shortage of GP services due to a "bottleneck" in training, according to the Competition Authority, writes Luke Cassidy.
A series of reports published yesterday by the authority found there was a relatively low number of GPs working in Ireland by international standards.
The authority recommends that doctors who have relevant hospital training and experience should, after undertaking a short orientation course, be allowed to proceed immediately to the two-year training course in a general practice.