Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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81. To ask the Minister for Health if a request by an organisation (details supplied) on a specific service will be considered. [20163/19]

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. Currently, 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.

The focus of the recent talks on GP contractual reform was on development of a range of modernisation, reform and sustainability measures and the development of a chronic disease programme for GMS and GP visit card patients. 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.