Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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545. To ask the Minister for Health if he will include the process of blood removal for haemochromatosis patients, venesection, by general practitioners for medical card holders to be covered by the scheme and for general practitioners to be reimbursed accordingly; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17882/17]

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 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.