South Tipperary has the lowest sign up rate of doctors in the country with just 4 doctors agreeing to the programme.
Parents have begun registering their children for the scheme today – the HSE says its website is experiencing huge volumes of traffic with most GPs signed up for online registration.
Sharon from Carrick on Suir has three children under 6 – however she says she would have to travel nearly 40 kilometres to Cahir to avail of the Under 6 Free GP Care Scheme.
She says the scheme would mean a lot for her family as they do not currently have a Medical Card.
Less than two-thirds of General Practitioners have come on board across the country with just 8% signing up in South Tipperary. The figure for North Tipp – East Limerick is at 56%.
Health Minister Leo Varadkar expects the national figure to reach 75 percent by the end of this week.
However South Tipp Deputy Mattie McGrath claims the scheme is not the cure-all many think it is. He says it would cover just the basic visit to the GP and would not cover any medication.
Mattie McGrath says GP's are being cast as the villain in this drama and is calling on the Health Minister to engage with doctors across the country.
Such has been the demand to register for the scheme that the HSE's website has crashed on a number of occasions today.
