The extended GP card scheme should be made easier to avail of, the Minister for Health has said at the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) conference in Killarney.
Stephen Donnelly said take-up of the free GP visit cards had been “poor”, but that action was being taken to improve the complicated application system.
The scheme was expanded last year when it was intended an additional 430,000 people would be able to see a doctor for free, but take-up has been less than 10 per cent, with doctors reporting patients who are either unaware of their entitlement or deterred by the complexity involved in obtaining one.
“There hasn’t been enough of a campaign to let patients know it’s available,” says Dr Madeleine Ní Dhálaigh, a member of the IMO’s GP committee who is based in Castlerea, Co Roscommon.
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“I regularly have individuals or young families in who I feel would fall under the threshold and mention it to them but they don’t know anything about it.
“The ones that do say the process of making the application on the website is quite complicated, because it takes into account both income and expenditure income. It could be a very valuable card for young families to have but I think that’s why the take-up has been so bad.”
On Friday, Mr Donnelly acknowledged the issue, telling IMO members take up had been “poor” but insisting the Health Service Executive would act to improve the situation.
“There’s been a very high uptake by parents for the seven- and eight-year-olds,” he said. But the uptake for people up to the median income has been very low.
“I’ve asked the HSE to review it urgently and to come back to me. My sense is it’s because it’s just too complex. I think the application forms are too complex. I think asking people to try and estimate whether they are at the median income ... I think it just needs to be simplified because fully free access to GP care will make a big, big difference to over 400,000 people in the country who have yet to take it up.
“I think we need more awareness. We probably need a broader communications plan. But ultimately, my sense is we need to make it simpler. That can be addressed and has to be addressed in the short term.”
Asked about characterisation by the Mid-West Hospital Campaign of his interventions at University Hospital Limerick as “sticking plasters”, Mr Donnelly reiterated that the Government had provided substantial backing for the facility, including 1,100 additional healthcare staff during the lifetime of this Government. He said the hospital’s consultants, as its senior clinical leadership, had a key role to play now in improving patient flow.
The Minister said, meanwhile, that 49.1 per cent of the country’s 4,300 hospital consultants have now signed the public-only contract.
Asked about suggestions that some physician associates might have been asked to fill gaps in doctors’ rosters in Irish hospitals on occasion, Mr Donnelly said he was unaware of any specific cases and that anyone who was should highlight the issue.
A significant number of instances of the practice have been reported in the UK.
“We cannot have any healthcare professional who is not a doctor asked to work as a doctor,” he said. “I think there were cases cited in the UK but everyone needs to work within their licence and their training.”
IMO president Dr Denis McCauley said the organisation was concerned that physician associates, a new grade of healthcare professional of whom there are only a very small number at present in Ireland, might be hired by hospitals “to mask the shortage of doctors”. The role, the IMO has said, needs to be “carefully regulated”.
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