Written answers

Tuesday, 24 November 2015

Department of Health

General Medical Services Scheme

Photo of Noel HarringtonNoel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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407. To ask the Minister for Health if there has been a change in the cost of international normalised ratio testing for patients on a medical card who are prescribed warfarin for a blood test; the reason for this change; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41574/15]

Photo of Kathleen LynchKathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Persons covered by the General Medical Services (GMS) Scheme should not be charged for routine phlebotomy services provided by their GP, or the Practice Nurse on behalf of the GP, which are required to either assist in the diagnosis of a patient or to monitor a diagnosed condition. Furthermore, a GP is precluded from demanding or accepting payments, other than payments from the HSE as provided for under his/her contract, for services covered by the GMS contract, such as issuing a letter of referral to another service/clinician.

Whereas INR blood tests are not mentioned specifically in the GMS contract, such tests are carried out by some general practitioners as a matter of course in their practices and I welcomes this. This provides their patients with an option of receiving this service locally in a primary care setting rather than attending an acute hospital for this service. Warfarin testing is available free of charge in hospitals.

Consultation fees charged by general practitioners 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.

A Memorandum of Understanding signed in February 2015 commits the Department of Health, the HSE and the IMO to substantive negotiations on a new comprehensive GP contract. These discussions have commenced and the appropriate arrangements in relation to phlebotomy services and anti-coagulation therapy will be considered in this context.

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