Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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435. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the fact that if a person does not have a medical card a doctor will not be assigned by the HSE; if his attention has been further drawn to the fact that no private general practitioner practices in County Carlow are accepting new persons; and the way in which a person is expected to live and work if they do not have access to basic healthcare, such as a visit to a general practitioner. [42311/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Persons who do not hold a medical card or GP visit card access GP services on a private basis. Details of the numbers of private patients attending particular GPs are not collected by the Department of Health or the HSE.

GPs are private contractors and issues relating to the acceptance of private patients or payment of fees outside the terms of the GMS contract are a matter of private contract between the clinician and his/her patients. While I have no role in relation to such matters, I would expect clinicians to consider the importance of patients having access to a GP service close to home when deciding whether or not to accept private patients.

The HSE Primary Care Unit in Community Healthcare Organisation 5 has advised that it has not been made aware of any issues regarding the assignment of private patients to GPs in Co Carlow. I welcome the news that the HSE has recruited a new Open Entry GP in Tullow, County Carlow in recent months, and that this GP commenced seeing patients in his new practice on 14 August 2017. I am also pleased to advise the Deputy that there are no vacant GMS panels in Co Carlow at present.