Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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569. To ask the Minister for Health the estimated full year cost of increasing the general practitioner rural practice allowance to €25,000. [11657/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Regulations were signed on 5th May 2016 which provide for the introduction of the new Rural Practice Support Framework (RPSF), which includes improved qualifying criteria for rural support and an increase in the financial allowance from €16,216.07 to €20,000 per annum. The Regulations also revise the list of Special Items of Service, which are made available to patients under the General Medical Services (GMS) scheme.

Under the new Framework, if two practice units are providing general practitioner services in the same qualifying area, both practices may qualify for a modified allowance of €10,000. GPs holding a permanent GMS contract who received the Rural Practice Allowance of €16,216.07 immediately prior to the introduction of the new Regulations who do not meet the new qualifying criteria continue to receive the payment on a personal basis, provided they retain their contractual commitment to the remote rural area.

As at 1st February 2017, there are 252 practice units in receipt of rural supports under the RPSF. 177 practices receive the financial allowance of €20,000 and 19 practices receive the modified allowance of €10,000. The full year cost of increasing the existing allowance to €25,000 and the corresponding modified allowance to €12,500 for these practices would amount to nearly €1 million. Any increase in the financial allowance under the new RPSF would only apply to those practices that qualify under the new criteria, therefore these calculations have excluded the 56 GPs who currently receive the old financial allowance of €16,216.07.