FINE GAEL and Labour have said the current level of payment to GPs for administering the seasonal flu vaccine to patients should be renegotiated. Family doctors are paid €38.95 for administering the seasonal flu vaccine while their counterparts in the UK get paid £7.51 (€8.30) for doing the same job.
Dr James Reilly, Fine Gael’s health spokesman, said he believed we should be able to get vaccination at a much lower level of cost than we currently do in general practice. “But equally that will require greater support in other areas for general practice if it’s to deliver on its full potential, specifically in relation to chronic illness care and disease prevention.”
Labour’s health spokeswoman Jan O’Sullivan said Minister for Health Mary Harney needs to renegotiate the fee with GPs. “She should go back and look for a lower rate because with the cuts now threatening in the health service every possible effort needs to be made to save money in ways that won’t hurt patients directly.”
She said Ms Harney had to insist on getting good value for money as well when agreeing with GPs the price they would be paid for administering the forthcoming swine flu vaccine.
Attention was drawn to the payments GPs receive for administering vaccines by Ms Harney at a conference in Dublin on Tuesday when she compared the amount paid to GPs here for administering the seasonal flu vaccine to the amount which GPs in the UK will get for administering the swine flu vaccine. Under a deal reached last week UK GPs are to be paid £5.25 (€5.80) to administer each dose of the swine flu vaccine. Each patient is expected to get two doses.
But the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), which represents GPs, stressed general practice in Ireland cannot be compared with general practice in the UK.
Dr Ronan Boland, chair of the IMO GP committee said the Minister failed to mention that agreements for general practice in the UK and Northern Ireland are significantly different to those that pertain in Ireland. “Practice expenses which include rent and rates, information technology, improvement grants, support staff, pension provisions are funded separately to payments for professional services by the government in the UK. In Ireland one fee is provided to cover expenses and professional fees.”