Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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415. To ask the Minister for Health to outline his views on a matter (details supplied) regarding haemochromatosis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15438/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Under the terms of the current GMS contract, GPs are required to provide eligible patients with ''all proper and necessary treatment of a kind usually undertaken by a general practitioner and not requiring special skill or experience of a degree or kind which general practitioners cannot reasonably be expected to possess." Venesection for the treatment of Haemochromatosis is not considered a routine service under the GMS contract. Consultation fees charged by GPs outside the terms of the GMS or GP Visit Card contracts are a matter of private contract between the clinicians and their 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.

The IBTS has been running a Haemochromatosis clinic in the Stillorgan Blood Donation Clinic since 2007 and sees approximately 600 patients annually. In this clinic the IBTS only accepts Hereditary Haemochromatosis (HH) patients who are eligible to donate blood. In 2013 and 2014, the IBTS commenced provision of a programme for HH patients in their D’Olier St (Dublin) and St Finbarr’s Hospital (Cork) clinics, respectively. The Clinics provide phlebotomy at no cost to the patient with a prescription from their treating clinician. The phlebotomy would be performed, regardless of whether the patient wanted to have their unit converted to a donation. The IBTS is examining a number of other models of service delivery, and is currently developing a paper on these various models to see how this can be addressed.

The Deputy will be aware of the ongoing review of the GMS and other publicly funded contracts involving GPs, and that the next phase of discussions to progress this work is underway. The aim is to develop a new modern GP services contract which will incorporate a range of standard and enhanced services to be delivered. I expect that the issue of therapeutic venesection services for patients with Haemochromatosis will be considered in the context of the overall GP contract review process.