Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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390. To ask the Minister for Health the cost of hiring an additional 500 general practitioner consultants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2346/16]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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As the HSE does not directly hire GPs, it is not possible to quantify the financial implications for the HSE of 500 additional GPs being hired to provide services to the public health system under the General Medical Services (GMS) Scheme and other schemes. GPs are remunerated for these services primarily on a capitation basis, with a range of additional support payments and fees for specific items of service. The amount payable in respect of certain of these supports is related to the doctor's panel size. In addition, medical indemnity insurance premia are refunded to contracted GPs, also based on the size of each doctor's GMS patient panel. The HSE pays into a superannuation scheme a sum equivalent to 10% of total capitation fees payable to contracted GPs.

The most recently published Statistical Analysis of Claims and Payments of the HSE's Primary Care Reimbursement Service relates to the year 2013. This report indicates that payments totalling €451.7 million were made to some 2,400 GMS contract holders. In total these costs related to approximately 1.9 million GMS patients. There was substantial variation in the average amount paid, ranging from €14,753 for a patient panel of up to 100 patients to €448,960 for a panel of 2,001 or more patients. The addition of substantially more contract-holding GPs would enhance the choice available to patients in the first place but any impact on the Exchequer would be dependent on the distribution of the eligible patients across the panels of contracting doctors. Where newly-qualified GPs obtain a GMS contract, they can only attract patients from the existing pool of GMS patients until such time as further phases of universal GP care are introduced.