Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 March 2004
300 Mr. F. McGrath asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will investigate a complaint that doctors in the Dublin 5 area will not make house calls for the elderly holding medical cards; and if practical assistance will be given to the elderly. [7541/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraUnder the GMS contract, participating general practitioners are obliged to provide surgery and domiciliary visits, where appropriate, for their medical card patients for 40 hours each week as agreed with their local health board. They must also make arrangements to enable contact to be made with him or a locum-deputy for emergencies outside of these hours.
It should be noted that general practitioners make a clinical decision on whether a domiciliary visit is appropriate based on the symptoms of the patient as presented at the time. If the Deputy is aware of a particular doctor who is refusing to make a domiciliary visit to a medical card patient, I would be happy to have the matter investigated with the Eastern Regional Health Authority, upon receipt of the relevant details. The chief executive officer of the Eastern Regional Health Authority is responsible for the provision of services for medical card holders in the area mentioned in the question.
