Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 30 Sep 2003

Vol. 571 No. 1

Written Answers. - Drugs Refund Scheme.

Richard Bruton

Ceist:

821 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will consider changing the administration of the drugs refund scheme which will allow those recipients of the scheme to be informed of the total cost which is borne by the State in relation to their individual claim; if, this facility does not exist currently to recipients of this scheme and as a means of increasing the accountability of drugs companies and the State in terms of accessing the total cost of this scheme, he will urgently consider making this information available to all recipients of the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19828/03]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Martin)

More than 1.3 million people are registered under the drugs payment scheme, DPS. The General Medical Services Payments Board processed more than 9 million items for the DPS in 2002. It would be cost prohibitive to report back to each individual client the specific cost per family claim.

However, work is ongoing on the development and implementation of a unique client identifier which would enable more detailed management and control of client registration under the scheme, and ultimately permit more detailed information regarding the cost of individual DPS claims to be extracted.