Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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GPs are private practitioners, most of whom hold a GMS contract with the HSE for the provision of medical services without charge to medical card and GP visit card holders.

Where a GMS patient, a person that holds a medical card or GP visit card, experiences difficulty in finding a GP to accept them as a patient, the person concerned having unsuccessfully applied to at least three GPs in the area (or fewer if there are fewer GPs in the area) can apply to the HSE National Medical Card Unit which has the power to assign a GMS patient to a GP's GMS patient list, in accordance with the GMS contract.

Furthermore, GMS patients who are assigned to a GP's GMS panel and wish to change their GMS GP can do so via the “Change of GP form” available from the HSE website. The GMS scheme operates under a choice of doctor principle, meaning that patients who hold a medical or GP visit card have the freedom to choose their GP, or move from one GP to another, provided the new GP is willing to accept the patient to their panel, and that the GP concerned holds a GMS contract.

People who do not hold a medical card or GP visit card access GP services on a private basis and can make enquiries directly to any GP practice they wish to register with. As private practitioners, it is a matter for each individual GP to decide whether to accept additional private patients. Neither my department nor the HSE have a role in assigning patients who do not hold a medical card or a GP visit card to a GP's patient list.