Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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743. To ask the Minister for Health the status of medical card patients and entitlement of general practitioners to charge them for consultations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35239/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The majority of GPs hold a GMS contract with the HSE for the provision of medical services without charge to medical card and GP visit card holders. As of the 1 October 2020, there are 1,588,697 medical card holders and 532,042 GP visit card holders.

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.". Persons who hold a medical card or a GP visit card are not subject to any co-payments or other charges in respect of such services including GP consultations.

However, the GMS contract stipulates that fees for medical and GP visit card holders are not paid to GPs under the contract in respect of certain medical certificates which may be required, for example, "under the Social Welfare Acts or for the purposes of insurance or assurance policies or for the issue of driving licences". Any fees charged by GPs for services provided outside the terms of the GMS contract are a matter of private contract between the GP and their patients.