The Chairman of the GP Committee of the IMO thinks utilising empty nursing home beds is a "good idea" to ease pressure on the health service.
Trolley figures have continued to drop in recent days, with an update expected later this morning.
On Monday morning, according to figures form the Irish Nurses and Midwives' Organisation, there were just two people waiting on trolleys in University Hospital Waterford.
It came on a day when the acting CEO of the HSE, Stephen Mulvany visited UHW to discuss topics including how busy the hospital was over the Christmas period.
Nursing Homes Ireland is now encouraging the HSE to procure the 1,000 empty nursing home beds they say are available nationwide.
Dr. Denis McCauley has welcomed the idea, and says GPs are only sending patients that need immediate care to emergency departments:
"We are assessors; we triage, we treat, and we only refer if it's absolutely necessary.
"General Practice is seeing the patients that we can see - we're assessing them all and we are seeing those that we can see and treating them in the community.
"The people that we are sending [to EDs] are people who have to, unfortunately, go to hospital for hospital care."
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