The Health Service Executive (HSE) have informed my Department that they are unable to provide the figures in the format (breakdown by four HSE regions) required by the Deputy and that they are currently working on their database system to enable the collection of this information in that format going forward.
The HSE have provided figures on the number of GP visit card holders in each county as at 1st June 2006 and these are shown on the table below. The percentage of the population holding either a medical card or GP visit card as at 1 June, 2006 was 29.15% (this figure is based on the Central Statistics Office official population estimate in 2005 — 4,130,700).
County
|
No. of persons holding a GP visit card
|
Carlow
|
447
|
Cavan
|
370
|
Clare
|
335
|
Cork
|
2,431
|
Donegal
|
1,205
|
Dublin
|
1,641
|
Galway
|
1,129
|
Kerry
|
845
|
Kildare
|
283
|
Kilkenny
|
492
|
Laois
|
383
|
Leitrim
|
240
|
Limerick
|
524
|
Longford
|
213
|
Louth
|
739
|
Mayo
|
850
|
Meath
|
657
|
Monaghan
|
345
|
Offaly
|
435
|
Roscommon
|
307
|
Sligo
|
372
|
Tipperary Nr
|
162
|
Tipperary Sr
|
596
|
Waterford
|
444
|
Westmeath
|
312
|
Wexford
|
727
|
Wicklow
|
391
|
Total
|
16,875
|