Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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679. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 752 of 4 March 2025, and subsequent reply in relation to the heartwatch scheme; the reason the new CDM Programme is only open to medical card patients (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13311/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The conditions for eligibility for GP services paid for by the State are set out in the Health Act 1970.

The Chronic Disease Management Programme, which has been rolled out progressively since 2000 and will see a further expansion to the conditions covered from July this year, covers a very large patient population. To date, over 470,000 patients have been registered on the programme, and this year’s expansion is estimated to bring in an additional 33,000 patients.

The delivery of healthcare programmes on such as large scale as this requires a measured approach to ensure that the capacity to deliver the programme is not exceeded. The Chronic Disease Management Programme was established following the 2019 GP Agreement which sets out the specific patient groups to be covered, the phasing of the Programme’s introduction, and the resources to be provided to GPs to deliver the programme.

The Programme as foreseen in the 2019 Agreement is now fully operational, and the expansions of 2024 and 2025 have been planned with General Practice to ensure that capacity to deliver them is in place. I and the HSE are continuously monitoring healthcare programmes with a view to ensuring appropriate access for patients in circumstances of appropriate capacity. In this context, I note that the Programme for Government includes a commitment to ‘examine the possibility of expanding the Structured Chronic Disease Management Programme to include more conditions and seek to provide access to more adults with these conditions’.

With regard to the specific person referred to in the question, I would note that all patients who had been on the Heartwatch programme when the CDM Programme was introduced were granted access to the CDM Programme, regardless of eligibility status. The patient or his GP may wish to contact the HSE directly to clarify their situation.