Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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577. To ask the Minister for Health the reason a doctor's appointment for the completion of a driving license application for the over 70s is not covered by the medical card; if he will consider including it as part of the medical card; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42299/13]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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Under the General Medical Services (GMS) contract, a general practitioner (GP) is expected to provide his/her patients who hold medical cards or GP visit cards with all proper and necessary treatment of a kind generally undertaken by a GP.

The contract between the HSE and GPs under the GMS Scheme stipulates that fees are not paid to GPs by the HSE in respect of certain medical certificates which may be required, for example, "under the Social Welfare Acts or for the purposes of insurance or assurance policies or for the issue of driving licences". There are no plans at present to amend the GMS contract in this regard.

Consultation fees charged by general practitioners to private patients and to GMS patients outside the terms of the GMS contract are a matter of private contract between the clinicians and the patients. While I have no role in relation to such fees, I would expect clinicians to have regard to the overall economic situation in setting their fees.