GPs receive more than €210m in pandemic payments from HSE

GPs received more than €210 million in payments for their work in vaccinating people and treating patients remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic, new figures show.

The sum equates to an average of €70,000 per individual GP over the duration of the pandemic, though not all opted to provide vaccinations or remote consultation services.

The HSE said it paid GPs more than €85 million in the year to January last for providing Covid-19 vaccines. GP practices were heavily involved in vaccinating over-70s and younger age groups deemed at high risk from the disease.

GPs fund staff and other costs from the amounts they are paid by the HSE. The number involved in Covid-19 vaccination varied over the pandemic, peaking at some 3,000 in March of last year.

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More than 3.4 million claims were made — including about 1 million each in respect of first and second doses, and 1.2 million booster doses.

The HSE said more than €126.9 million was paid out to GPs for remote consultations during the pandemic, and for referring patients for Covid-19 testing. More than €50 million of this related to 2020, €59 million to last year and almost €18 million up to the end of last April.

GPs were paid an agreed fee of €30 for the remote consultations, with no additional fee payable for providing Covid-19 testing to patients.

The figures were provided by the HSE to the Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane, who also asked for a breakdown of the larger payments to individual GP practices. The HSE said it was not possible “at this point” to provide such a breakdown.

“I’m hoping that info can be provided as quickly as possible,” Mr Cullinane told The Irish Times.

The HSE described the mobilisation of general practice staff, GPs and practice nurses as a “key enabler” of the vaccination programme.

“Despite the enormous pressure GP practices across the country were facing diagnosing and managing Covid-19 cases, in addition to their normal GP caseload, GPs and practice nurses showed enthusiasm and commitment to supporting the administration of vaccines to these higher-risk groups,” it said.

“As a trusted source of advice for patients in the community and their support of the programme both in terms of administering the vaccine and educating patients on vaccine effectiveness and safety, GPs contributed greatly to the high vaccination rates we saw across all age groups in Ireland.”