asked the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Energy if he will consider bringing doctors' fees for private patients under the price control machinery of the National Prices Commission.
Ceisteanna—Questions . Oral Answers . - Doctors' Fees .
20.
: Doctors' fees for private patients come within the scope of the Prices Acts, 1958-1972. Under the Prices and Charges (Notification of Increases) Order, 1976, doctors are required to give two months notice of any proposed increase in their fees for private patients. Such proposals are examined by the National Prices Commission.
: Is the Minister aware that the fees charged by some doctors in Dublin after midnight can be as high as £15? Is the Minister further aware that some of the people who are victims of these charges are borderline cases for medical cards?
: I am not so aware, Deputy.
: Does the Minister agree that if members of the public feel they are being overcharged they should refer such charges to the National Prices Commission for investigation?
: Of course they should. Doctors' fees are kept under surveillance at all times by the National Prices Commission. It may interest Deputies to know that a random survey of doctors' fees is at present in progress.
: Can the Minister tell the House what sort of fees are approved by the National Prices Commission?
: That is a separate question.
(Cavan-Monaghan): As a matter of interest, will the Minister tell us how doctors' fees are monitored or how the commission are able to know when fees have been increased?
: That is a separate question, Deputy.
: In reply to the original question the Minister said that doctors were obliged, like everybody else coming under the legislation, to furnish notice of increased charges. Have any such notices ever been furnished?
: Since the Prices (Amendment) Act, 1972, some 40 general practitioners have submitted applications for increases in their fees for private patients. There are 1,480 general practitioners in the Republic. Of this figure of 40, 21 work in Dublin, four in Cork, two in Limerick, one in Clare and the remainder in Dundalk. The latter applied as a group.
(Cavan-Monaghan): In reply to a supplementary question the Minister said that doctors' fees are kept under surveillance. Will she tell us how they are kept under surveillance?
: Under the normal surveillance of the National Prices Commission.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Can the Minister give us an idea how this is done?
: The Deputy should put down a separate question.
: The original question does not relate to the surveillance of doctors' fees. The question may lead to anything and the Deputy will not get away with that.
(Cavan-Monaghan): I am not trying to get away with anything. I am simply asking the Minister to explain an answer and there is nothing disorderly about that.
: The original question asks if doctors' fees will be brought under the National Prices Commission. The Deputy's question refers to surveillance.
(Cavan-Monaghan): The Minister's reply to that question was that fees are kept under surveillance and I asked her how they were kept under surveillance.
: May I ask the Minister of State if she is satisfied that the law is being complied with in this regard by the medical profession in general?
: Surely there is a limit to the number of questions that can be asked.
: In defence of ourselves, I must say that the Minister of State would have been within her rights in not giving all the information which she gave in her original reply. She gave it and she must therefore expect to be questioned on it.