Vol. 417 No. 1
206 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Health whether his Department have received any complaints of bad business practices made against practitioners in the greater Dublin area, particularly in relation to availability of GPs to their patients outside normal working hours.
The contract between health boards and general practitioners for the provision of services to persons covered by medical cards requires general practitioners to make suitable arrangements for out-of-hours cover. As part of the GMS contract, additional payments are made to doctors for consultations outside normal hours. My Department have received a number of representations regarding the availability, outside normal hours, of general practitioner sevices to GMS patients in major urban areas. I intend to have this issue raised in the upcoming GMS review discussions with the Irish Medical Organisation to see what can be done to improve the situation.
