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." There is no provision under the GMS GP contract for persons who hold a medical card or GP visit card to be charged for medical services provided under the contract.

GPs contracted by the HSE under the GMS scheme are obliged to provide services to their medical card and GP visit card patients, including those resident in nursing homes. GPs are remunerated for these services primarily on a capitation basis, with a range of additional support payments and fees for specific items of service. An annual capitation payment of €434.15 is payable in respect of each GMS patient over 70 years of age residing in a private nursing home approved by the HSE for periods in excess of 5 weeks. Along with most other capitation rates the nursing home rate will increase by approximately 48% over the next 4 years, under the recent agreement with the IMO on the reform and modernisation of the GMS contract

However,if a nursing home requires GPs to provide services to the home above and beyond what is covered by the GMS contract, this would be a matter of private contract between the Nursing Home and the GPs concerned. 

If a nursing home feels that a GP is not providing the required care to a GMS patient as provided for in the GMS contract, they should contact their local HSE Primary Care Unit who will look into the matter.