Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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Question 242: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if he will provide a breakdown of the costs that general practitioners meet out of their general medical services payments, relating to staff, accommodation and so on, received from the Health Service Executive. [5982/11]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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More than 60% of the population receive GP services on a private fee paying basis, while almost 40% receive such services under the General Medical Services (GMS) Scheme. While these percentages may vary between practices, information in relation to GPs business expenses are not available to my Department.

GPs who hold contracts with the Health Service Executive (HSE) under the GMS Scheme are remunerated through a range of fees and allowances, including capitation fees, out-of-hours payments, special items of service fees, rural practice allowance, payments towards the employment of practice nurse, secretary and manager support and fees for locum cover for leave.

In 2009, the total fees and allowances paid by the HSE to contracted GPs was over €470 million. This included allowances of some €75 million towards the employment of practice secretaries, nurses and managers. These staff are available for the provision of services to the GPs' private patients. The full list of GMS payments to GPs is set out in the Primary Care Reimbursement Service "Statistical Analysis of Claims and Payments 2009", which can be viewed on-line at http://www.hse.ie/eng/staff/PCRS/PCRS_Publications/2009.pdf.

Regulations made in 2009 and 2010 under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2009 will result in full year savings of some €78 million in 2011 in GP fees and allowances. The current rates of GMS payments are set out in the Health Professionals (Reduction of Payments to General Practitioners) Regulations 2010 (S.I. 638/2010).