Prof Niamh Brennan has suggested that GPs who refuse to pay back money which the Department of Health claims they were overpaid in respect of "ghost" patients are guilty of "fraud", writes Eithne Donnellan.
The UCD business professor, who was author of the Brennan report which examined Government spending on health, told a doctors' meeting in Kildare earlier this month that refusing to pay back the money would "amount to a fraud on the public purse".
Prof Brennan's comments were published in yesterday's Irish Medical news and have been described as intemperate by the chairman of the GP committee of the Irish Medical Organisation, Dr James Reilly. He said Prof Brennan's remarks were regrettable and he asked her to withdraw them.
GPs do not accept they were overpaid at any stage, Dr Reilly said. He explained that when GPs receive payment in respect of medical card patients from the GMS Payments Board, they do not know which patients they are being paid for. As a result, many GPs have been underpaid for years, he claimed.
He added that he had no problem with a review of the entire payments system.
The Department believes GPs were overpaid by up to €20 million as a review of the GMS lists revealed some patients had been dead for years but their GPs were still being paid an annual fee to treat them.