Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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184. To ask the Minister for Health the position regarding recruitment of general practitioners (details supplied) in the Health Service Executive; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2048/15]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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GPs are private contractors who provide services to the public health system under the General Medical Services (GMS) Scheme and other schemes.

Under the Health (Provision of General Practitioner Services) Act 2012, a registered medical practitioner:

(a) whose name is included in the Specialist Division of the register of medical practitioners established under section 43(2)(b) of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007, and

(b) who holds a current certificate of registration within the meaning of section 2 of that Act in respect of the medical specialty “General Practice” recognised under section 89(1) of that Act;

is eligible to apply to the HSE for a contract to provide services to medical card and GP visit card holders under the General Medical Services Scheme. Any GP who holds a GMS contract is eligible to apply for a vacant GMS panel. Such panels are filled through open competition and interview following advertisements in national and medical newspapers. There is no restriction on the HSE placing advertisements for such competitions.

The HSE is currently engaged in a medical workforce planning project, which will include workforce planning for GPs. The Medical Workforce Planning Project underway within the HSE's National Doctor Training and Planning Unit is on target to develop a medical workforce planning system by June 2015. The system will be based on a statistical model of supply and demand which will be informed by expert stakeholders, population and medical workforce data across all medical specialties. Both entrants into and exits from the workforce will be accounted for. Furthermore, a measure of patient need and the demand for medical specialist services will be determined and included in the statistical model. Medical workforce planning for General Practice is included in this work and will be prioritised in the development of workforce projections based on both the supply of GPs and the demand for GP services over the next 20 years.