asked the Minister for Health if he will consider the advisability of extending the retention fee payable in some cases to district medical officers to all areas to ensure that some form of medical treatment will be available to the entire public.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Medical Officers Retention Fee.
46.
In the re-organised general medical service all former permanent district medical officers who have remained in the scheme have been guaranteed a continuation of their existing conditions including a minimum salary. Similar guarantees for a minimum of 2½ years have been extended to former temporary district medical officers with at least two years' continuous service at the commencement of the scheme who continue to reside and provide a service in districts outside a town of 5,000 population. I assume that the Deputy has in mind an extension of the latter arrangement.
The main reason for the limited guarantees to former temporary district medical officers is to encourage the doctors concerned to continue to reside and serve in rural areas. In the light of experience of the operation of the scheme it will be open to a health board to continue indefinitely such guarantees where they are necessary to ensure that a district is adequately served by a general practitioner. I do not accept that there would be any justification for the grant of similar guaranteed conditions to former temporary district medical officers living in large towns even where they may be serving a rural area.