A Waterford GP says he won't be signing the new illness benefit forms issued by the Department of Social Protection.
People can claim the payment when they're out of work due to illness or injury.
The new medical certs are due to be in place from today however GP's were only informed of the change when the forms arrived late last week.
Dr Tadhg O'Carroll is a GP in the Tycor area of Waterford.
He says he has concerns about patient privacy and data protection.
"Under the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) government departments are not bound by this, but everyone else is," he said.
"We would want to have absolute assurances that there would be no data mining and that patients medical records would be confidential to them unless they give explicit consent."
Dr O'Carroll says he will continue to issue the usual certs, advising that if they have any difficulty receiving payments that they should contact their local representatives.
