Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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216. To ask the Minister for Health why GP card holders are required to pay for visits when renewing their driver's licences; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55462/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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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". 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.

The HSE reimburses GPs for services provided under the GMS contract to medical and GP visit card holders. The contract stipulates that fees 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" are not covered by the contract. 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 patient.