Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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324. To ask the Minister for Health if there is any obligation on a GP to accept the newborn child of a private patient as a patient in their practice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25911/24]

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. All children under 8 years of age and all those aged 70 years and over are eligible for a GP visit card.

Although GPs will ordinarily accept new patients who hold a medical or GP visit card on to their GMS panel, a GP may choose not to accept such a patient. Where a GP chooses not to except a new patient who holds a medical or GP visit card, the HSE may request, in confidence, the reason for that decision.

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. Likewise, a parent on behalf of a child GMS patient who experiences difficulty in finding a GP that will accept their child as a patient can apply to the HSE National Medical Card Unit also.

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 any role in assigning patients who do not hold a medical card or a GP visit card to a GP's patient list.