FG health spokesman defends position on medical card

FINE GAEL health spokesman Dr James Reilly has denied there is any conflict of interest between his opposition to the cutbacks in medical card eligibility and his role in negotiating terms on behalf of GPs when the deal on medical cards for all over-70s was struck seven years ago.

A GP and former president of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), Dr Reilly employs four locum doctors and works half a day a week in his busy north Dublin practice. Like many other GPs, his practice stands to lose considerably from the Government's decision to withdraw the automatic entitlement to cards for the over-70s.

As chairman of the IMO's GP committee in 2001, he played a central role in negotiating advantageous terms for doctors after the Government had announced its intention to grant medical cards to all over-70s.

Dr Reilly told The Irish Timeshe was wearing "an entirely different hat" when the deal was negotiated. He said he stood over the deal, which the IMO had negotiated to "the best of our strengths".

"That was then, and this is now. People change football teams all the time," he commented. He accused Fianna Fáil of trying to fight a battle on historical grounds rather than deal with current realities.

In the negotiations, the IMO originally sought payment for GPs for each visit by persons over 70, but settled for a fee calculated on an estimate of 12 visits a year.

Minister for Health Mary Harney says HSE figures show an average of four visits per year by this group, but Mr Reilly disputed this figure. He said one large medical practice had calculated an average of 10.9 visits per year by its over-70s patients.

Because doctors get € 480 for the new over-70s medical card holders as against €135 for over-70s who qualified on the basis of a medical card, GPs in affluent areas with many older patients have benefited most.

Dr Reilly described this as an "unforeseen consequence" of the deal. The €1,650 annual cost of a medical card for over-70s would be more than exceeded if they were forced through lack of medical attention to spend a single day in hospital, he pointed out.

Dr Reilly said he had nothing to hide: "There is absolutely no conflict of interest. I stand for the elderly people of north Dublin in objecting to a health service which is being devastated by the privatising ideology of the Government."

In 2004, Dr Reilly was quoted as saying the only equitable way to give out medical cards was by way of a means test. Asked yesterday about his views, he said medical cards for all over-70s was a "fait accompli" from which there was no going back.

"Older people are now accustomed to and dependent on their cards. They don't withstand change terribly well. You can't just take them away."