Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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616. To ask the Minister for Health the number of GPs currently practising in counties Laois and Offaly, respectively; the number of new GPs who have taken up work in each of those counties in each of the years 2021, 2022 and 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15960/24]

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. Currently there are 2,526 GPs contracted to provide services under the GMS Scheme, and a further 602 GPs hold some other contract with the HSE for the provision of health services such as services under the Primary Childhood Immunisation Scheme or National Cancer Screening Service.

In relation to the numbers of HSE contacted GPs in counties Laois and Offaly, as this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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617. To ask the Minister for Health the number of people in counties Laois and Offaly, respectively who are without a GP and are currently on a waiting list for one; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15961/24]

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. Currently there are 2,526 GPs contracted to provide services under the GMS Scheme, and a further 602 GPs hold some other contract with the HSE for the provision of health services such as services under the Primary Childhood Immunisation Scheme or National Cancer Screening Service.

Where 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.

Persons 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. Accordingly, the HSE does not maintain information on patients on waiting lists for registration with a GP on a private basis.