Michael Lowry (Tipperary North, Independent)
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951. To ask the Minister for Health how a person can access general practitioner (GP) services in circumstances where all local GPs with GMS contracts have closed patient lists and are not accepting new patients; the options available to individuals such as a person (details supplied); if the HSE has a protocol in place to ensure continuity of care in such cases; and the steps her Department is taking to ensure all patients have meaningful access to essential primary care services regardless of GP list closures. [39224/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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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. As of the 1st of July, there are 2,566 GPs contracted to provide services under the GMS Scheme and a further 632 GPs do not hold a GMS contract but hold at least one other contract with the HSE for the provision of health services.

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 Eligibility 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.

The HSE website provides a "find a GP" facility which can assist in locating and contacting GP in or around the area concerned.

Several measures have been taken in recent years to increase the number of GPs practicing throughout the country and thereby improve GP access.

Significant increases in investment in general practice has been provided under the 2019 and 2023 GP Agreements. Under the 2019 GP Agreement additional annual expenditure provided for general practice was increased by €211.6m. This provided for significant increases in capitation fees for participating GMS GPs, and new fees for additional services and increased practice supports, including the introduction of a support for practices in urban areas of social deprivation.

The GP Agreement 2023 further increased GP capitation fees, increased the existing subsidy rates for practice staff, and introduced a grant support for additional staff capacity as well a practice staff maternity leave support.

Annual intake to the GP training scheme has been increased by approximately 80% from 2019 to 2024, with 350 new entrant training places made available from 2024. As a result, the number of GP graduates has increased in recent years and will continue to increase in the coming years.

Furthermore, recruitment of GPs from abroad is ongoing under the International Medical Graduate (IMG) Rural GP Programme. As of June, 118 IMG doctors are in practice here with a further 18 having completed the new 2-year programme. The placement of IMG GPs is targeted to rural and underserved areas.