Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is important to state the Government acknowledges the vital role GPs have played, particularly during the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and, more generally, in providing essential healthcare in the community. We, as a Government, are committed to ensuring that patients across the country continue to have access to GP services, including out-of-hours services such as those the Senator has raised.

A package of measures to support general practice was introduced in March 2020 in order to take account of the impact of Covid on general practice and to ensure that GPs were in a position to provide essential Covid and non-Covid services, which they have done. In addition, in recognition of the need for the continuance of GP out-of-hours services, the HSE is providing grants to support the out-of-hours co-operatives.

The HSE's PCRS is responsible for making payments to primary care contractors, including GPs. Payments totalling in excess of €780 million were made to GPs by the PCRS in 2020. As I stated, the PCRS is responsible for verifying the reasonableness and accuracy of all claims submitted for payment.

I would encourage any GPs in the Senator's area who have concerns or issues to engage directly with the PCRS. It has provided a dedicated email address for GPs, which I will furnish to the Senator.Claims that can be validated by the primary care reimbursement service as being in line with the GP contract will be paid. In the meantime, Cork Kerry Community Healthcare has recently been made aware of the non-payment of claims to GPs who are providing a Saturday morning service outside the SouthDoc group. It is looking into this issue and will be engaging with GPs, the PCRS and other stakeholders as a matter of priority to resolve it. I will ensure engagement happens as swiftly as possible to try to get a resolution to what is a very concerning issue for the people of the Senator's area.