Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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280. To ask the Minister for Health the first and full year cost of restoring distance coding and increasing the rural practice allowance to amounts (details supplied), in tabular form. [17269/19]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I am pleased that agreement has been reached with the IMO on a major package of GP contractual reforms which will benefit patients and GPs. In return for cooperation with the service developments and reforms, the Government will increase investment in general practice by approximately 40% (€210 million) over the next four years. This will see significant increases in capitation fees for GPs who participate in the reform programme and the introduction of new fees and subsidies for additional services such as the chronic disease programme.

As part of this package, the financial allowance available under the Rural Practice Support Framework will be increased by 10% in 2020. There will also be increased support for GPs working in disadvantaged urban areas. Improvements in the maternity and paternity leave arrangements have also been agreed, in recognition of the need to ensure that general practice is compatible with doctors’ family friendly commitments.

I am confident that these measures help make general practice more sustainable and help make general practice a more attractive career option for doctors.

The “distance code” was removed as a factor in calculating GP fees and allowances in 2010. Under the previous arrangements, certain fees payable to GPs such as capitation and out of hours fees varied according to a patient's age, gender and distance of their residence from the GP's surgery.

To accurately cost a reinstatement of the previous "distance code" arrangement would require a detailed exercise by the HSE, which would involve establishing a database for the current population of GMS patients containing their age, gender and distance of their residence from their GP's surgery. As the HSE does not maintain such a database, it is not possible to provide a cost estimate in respect of this element of the Deputy's question.

In relation to the cost of increasing the financial supports available to rural practices by the amounts specified, as this is a service matter, I have arranged for the question to be referred to the HSE for direct reply to the Deputy.