Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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1452. To ask the Minister for Health the percentage of the adult population by county who are not registered with a general practitioner. [14276/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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General Practitioners are private contractors. There is no prescribed ratio of GPs to patients and the State does not regulate the number of GPs that can set up in a town or community.  

The majority of GPs provide services on behalf of the HSE to people with medical cards and GP visit cards. As of 1 February, over 2.1 million people, or almost 43% of the population, now have access to free GP care and are registered with a GP. 

People who do not hold either a medical card or a GP visit card access GP services on a private basis. The State does not prescribe the number of private patients that may be registered with a GP; this is a matter for individual GP practices.  

Information on the percentage of the population who are not registered with a GP is not collected by my Department or the HSE.