Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 4 March 2015
168. Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Health if he will provide the details of out-of-pocket payments by the public to general practitioners and out-of-pocket payments for medications in each of the past five years. [9529/15]
View answerSection 11 of the General Medical Services (GMS) General Practitioner (GP) Capitation Contract, which was introduced in 1989, provides that the medical practitioner shall provide for eligible persons, on behalf of the Health Service Executive, all proper and necessary treatment of a kind usually undertaken by a general practitioner and not requiring special skill or experience of a degree or kind which general practitioners cannot reasonably be expected to possess.
GPs who hold a GMS contract with the HSE must not seek or accept money from medical card or GP visit card holders for services covered under the contract.
GPs are private contractors and issues relating to payment of fees outside the terms of the GMS contract are a matter of private contract between the clinician and the patient. Details of such payments are not available to my Department or the HSE.
In relation to out of pocket payments for medications the Department can only provide data on the revenue collected from the prescription charge which applies to medical card holders. The total revenue collected to date for the prescription charge is:
|
Year |
Total - € |
|
2011 |
€27.6 million |
|
2012 |
€29.7 million |
|
2013 |
€85.6 million |
|
2014 (projected) |
€120 million |
It is not possible to provide any further data on out of pocket expenditure as neither the Department nor the HSE collects data on the level of private spending that is incurred by individuals purchasing medications.
