Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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523. To ask the Minister for Health the estimated cost of increasing supports to GPs in areas of deprivation by 10%. [45916/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The 2019 GP Agreement provides for an annual support grant for GP practices in urban areas of social deprivation. The grant may be used by practices to provide additional health services to patients based on identified patient needs.

The urban social deprivation grant has an annual budget allocation of €2 million. As per the HSE Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) annual report for 2023, funding provided under the urban social deprivation grant last year amounted to approximately €3.1 million. Accordingly, based on this figure, increasing the funding amount provided to GP practices under the urban social deprivation grant by 10% would cost approximately an additional €310,000 per annum.

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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524. To ask the Minister for Health the estimated cost of providing two free visits for women experiencing menopause. [45917/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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We have developed six specialist clinics nationwide, one in each maternity network, for women who require complex, specialist care. All six clinics are operational, in the National Maternity Hospital, Nenagh Hospital, the Rotunda, the Coombe, Galway and Cork.

While the majority of women who seek support for their menopause can be effectively supported within primary care by their GP, a proportion of symptomatic women will require specialist medical expertise in menopause. It is intended that these more complex cases can be dealt with, upon referral by their GP, in one of the six specialist menopause clinics.

These specialist menopause clinics are provided in the public health service, free of charge. All six specialist menopause clinics are being provided as a public outpatients service and can be accessed by GP referral only.

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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525. To ask the Minister for Health the cost of providing for 10 HSE-employed GPs. [45918/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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526. To ask the Minister for Health the cost of increasing funding to the general practitioner access to community diagnostics scheme by 10%. [45919/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The nationwide GP Access to Community Diagnostics programme (GPACD), which began accepting referrals in January 2021, facilitates direct referral by General Practitioners to diagnostics services for their patients.

This structured pathway for GPs to directly access diagnostic tests enables a greater level of care to be delivered in the community, supporting patient-centred care, early diagnosis, and early intervention.

Budget 2025 has allocated €46.0m total funding for GPACD for the continued delivery of directly referred diagnostic tests to the full adult population to end 2025. The HSE’s 2025 National Service Plan (NSP) will confirm the number of scans targeted for next year when published. On the basis of the Budget 2025 funding for the GPACD programme, increasing funding to programme by 10% would cost €4.6m approx.