Peter Barry
Ceist:223 Mr. Barry asked the Minister for Health the number of medical card holders in each health board area in (a) January, 1987, (b) January, 1988, (c) January, 1989 and (d) January, 1990.
Written Answers. - Medical Card Holders.
The information requested by the Deputy is as follows.
Number of medical card holders current at
|
Health Board |
31/12/86 |
31/12/87 |
31/12/88 |
31/12/89 |
|
Eastern |
200,736 |
217,271 |
230,639 |
205,619 |
|
Midland |
46,064 |
45,709 |
45,212 |
45,265 |
|
Mid-Western |
59,672 |
61,235 |
59,162 |
59,104 |
|
North-Eastern |
68,789 |
71,613 |
71,188 |
68,546 |
|
North-Western |
58,969 |
58,566 |
55,650 |
53,975 |
|
South-Eastern |
88,638 |
85,391 |
83,157 |
78,419 |
|
Southern |
114,711 |
116,363 |
104,617 |
104,655 |
|
Western |
92,622 |
92,576 |
94,893 |
93,917 |
Prior to the introduction, in March 1989, of the capitation based system of payment for doctors participating in the GMS each health board carried out a review to eliminate the cards of deceased card holders and other invalid cards from their registers. This exercise resulted in a reduction of the number of medical cards during that period.