Alan Farrell
Question:1643. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Minister for Health the efforts being made to reduce the administrative burden on GPs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17577/23]
View answerTuesday, 18 April 2023
Questions (1643)
Written answers
GPs are private practitioners, and while most hold a GMS contract with the HSE for the provision of GP services without charge to medical card and GP visit card holders.
Under the GMS scheme, GPs are paid a subsidy towards the cost of employing a practice nurse and/or a practice secretary, the latter would commonly perform a range of administrative duties. The rate payable depends on the GP's GMS panel size and the level of experience of the nurse or secretary. A practice manager subsidy is also available.
In addition, as provided for in Budget 2023, a significant package of additional practice supports is being prepared in the context of the expansion of eligibility for GP care without charges to people who earn the median household income or less.
As part of its commitment to GP practice, the HSE continue to invest in the development of many new features within GP practice management systems in an effort to expand their capabilities, improve patient care and facilitate a reduction in administrative overheads for busy GP practices.
Practice systems have been continuously developed to support the chronic disease management (CDM) programme and digitally enable the submission of both the data required to manage the CDM programme and the data required for reimbursement; a single submission now covers both.
Through a combination of technology and regulatory changes, the pandemic saw the rapid deployment of new facilities to support electronic transfer of prescriptions via Healthmail, access to teleconsultations, the introduction of electronic referrals for patients that required Covid testing and system enhancements to support GP practices administration of Covid vaccinations, digitally enabling the reimbursement of GPs as an integral part of the data submission for the vaccination. This capability was subsequently extended to support the administration of flu vaccines last winter, eliminating much of the administration overhead associated with the older, paper based process.
In recent years we have also seen the introduction of electronic sick certs in lieu of the older, paper based forms, again in an effort to streamline processes and leverage digital to reduce administrative overhead.
Whilst the impact of these initiatives in some cases pushed back the delivery of other ICT related initiatives, as described under the 2019 GP Agreement, the planned development of other eHealth initiatives, such as a full electronic prescribing, the national summary and shared care record programmes, we anticipate will also help improve care and reduce the administration burden on GP practices.