Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 June 2012
138 Deputy Paul J. Connaughton asked the Minister for Health if a doctor whose patient is in a nursing home receives extra money for that patient; if so, the amount of same; in that case, should they be required to attend to that person on a regular basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27663/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn accordance with the Health Professionals (Reduction of Payments to General Practitioners) Regulations 2010 (Statutory strument No. 638 of 2010), a General Practitioner (GP) receives an annual capitation payment of €448.04 where his/her medical card or GP visit card patient aged 70 years or more is residing in a private nursing home (approved by the HSE) for continuous periods in excess of 5 weeks. GPs receive an annual capitation payment of €280.31 where his/her medical card or GP visit card patient aged 70 years or more is residing in the community.
Under Section 1 of the General Medical Services (GMS) contract, a medical practitioner shall provide services or arrange for the provision of services in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract for all eligible persons on his/her GMS list of eligible persons as approved by the HSE and who have not been notified to him/her by the HSE as having ceased to be on his/her list, regardless of whether they live in the community or in a private nursing home.
Under Section 11 of the General Medical Services (GMS) contract, a GP is required to provide the eligible patients on his/her GMS list with all proper and necessary treatment of a kind usually undertaken by a general practitioner and not requiring special skill or experience of a degree or kind which general practitioners cannot reasonably be expected to possess. This section of the contract also states that the medical practitioner shall accept clinical responsibility for persons on his/her list who need medical treatment and treat them or, when the clinical condition is such that it is appropriate to transfer them to appropriate consultant care, do so and accept clinical responsibility for them on becoming aware of their discharge from consultant care.
In addition, the medical practitioner shall also make suitable arrangements to enable contact to be made with him or his/her locum/deputy outside normal hours for urgent cases in respect of which a separate out-of-hours fee is payable, e.g. €45 for an out-of-hours domiciliary visit.
