Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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608. To ask the Minister for Health when the replacement general practitioner services for Blarney, County Cork (details supplied), will be in place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6634/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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GPs are self-employed practitioners and therefore may establish practices at a place of their own choosing. 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.

Under the GMS scheme, the HSE contracts GPs to provide medical services without charge to medical card and GP visit card holders. Where a vacancy arises in a practice with a GMS contract, the HSE becomes actively involved in the recruitment process to find a replacement GP. In the interim the HSE puts in place a locum or other appropriate arrangement to maintain GP services to the communities in question.

As the issue of GMS vacancies is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly regarding the recruitment process to find a replacement GP in Blarney, County Cork, as soon as possible.