asked the Minister for Health if he will reconsider his decision to remove pregnancy testing diagnostic material from the list of prescribed items available under the general medical services scheme as this is causing both unnecessary delay and expense in diagnosis.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Pregnancy Testing.
3.
Diagnostic materials such as these are part of the normal facilities provided by a family doctor in his practice and used by him in diagnosis. The items retained on the list of items reimbursable under the General Medical Services are for use by or to be taken by the patient.
In view of the very high cost of this diagnostic pregnancy material, which can cost as much as £80, and assuming 40 per cent of the population are covered by the general medical services there would be a 40 per cent usage of these materials and would it not be reasonable for the Department to make some subvention towards the cost to general medical practitioners because it is important diagnosis should take place as rapidly as possible?
I do not know what cost the Deputy is talking about. One test costs about 20 pence according to my information. The others take longer and cost more. I do not know where the Deputy finds this cost of £80.
One test does cost that much.
I am not aware of that.
There is some concern about this. It is a rather grey area and may I ask the Minister if he will consider the decision to remove these facilities because while the vast majority of normal patients have a normal physiological development, such as a pregnancy, it is important to be able at times to differentiate between the physiological normality of pregnancy and the pathological abnormality of a gynaecological disease where rapid instant diagnosis should be available rather than awaiting laboratory procedures which entail a certain amount of delay?
The materials referred to are part of the normal facilities provided by the family doctor. These items were on the general medical list and were removed from it. By having them added to the list again I do not see how that would improve the position for the simple reason that they are part of the facilities available to doctors and are, therefore, available to patients also.
Is the Minister aware that as a result of the high cost of these materials many family doctors have ceased to provide the facilities in their own surgeries because of the added expense to their already costly list. In order to diagnose pregnancy many doctors are now forced to send the actual test through the normal procedures of laboratory testing, which in some cases entails being sent 40 and 50 miles to the regional laboratory. This adds quite an amount on to the cost of testing which has to be borne by the Department in due course. The most important thing about this is that there is a delay of two or three days before the diagnosis is established.
As a result of what the Deputy says we will have another look at it. They are items provided by the family doctor.