Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Question 506: To ask the Minister for Health if there is a requirement for general practitioners who have medical card patients to have a walk-in element to their practice. [37021/11]

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Under the General Medical Services (GMS) contract between the HSE and a GP, the GP agrees to be routinely available for consultation by eligible persons at his / her surgery or surgeries and for domiciliary visiting for a total of 40 hours each week on five days or more in the week. Also under the contract, the GP must make suitable arrangements to enable contact to be made with him / her or his / her locum / deputy outside normal hours for urgent cases. The use of an appointments system in a GP's practice, that does not discriminate between public and private patients and that fulfils the terms of the GP's contract in terms of availability for consultation by the GP's patients, is acceptable to the HSE.