Government still committed to free GP care, conference told

Minister of State for Primary Care, Alex White, has denied that the Government is reneging on its election promises with the delay in the introduction of free GP care for all, claiming that setting out a roadmap for its introduction will actually fast-track its implementation.

Mr White, addressing members of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) at their annual conference in Galway today, put any delays in the free GP plan down to a "cumbersome and bureaucratic assessment process" for the first phase of the plan.

However, he has vowed to unveil a number of new options for the GP plan’s future “in the near future and certainly before the summer break”, but he was unable to give a date for its roll-out.

“Some of the commentary during the week inevitably suggested that this was a row-back. But the contrary is the case. My interest in what I am doing is to expedite the implementation of free GP care. Not to slow it down, not to row back, but to expedite it.

“It is my judgement if we spend another six or eight months putting in place a complex, administrative system involving the new details of how people are assessed for eligibility, that is will actually slow down the progress that we all want to see happen,” said Mr White, who replaced Róisín Shorthall when she resigned in September 2012.

The minister received a more positive response from ICGP members than Minister for Health James Reilly did at the INMO conference yesterday, and his 12-minute oration was applauded by members afterwards.

The minister pleaded with the assembled doctors not to interpret any negative press in the past week as an indication of disinterest in the GP plan on the Government’s behalf. However, he was still unable to unveil any details of how they plan top progress.

“I regard universal GP care without fees at the point of delivery as absolutely essential to what we need to do in primary care and I am determined that what we will have by the summer is clarity on how we are going to attain that objective of universal coverage.

“So please down interpret what you saw during the week as a negative or as any kind of a u-turn or any kind of a rolling back. The contrary is the case and that is absolutely my commitment that I give you here.

“I am not yet able to say what route we will come to decide upon. We will decide on that after the work already under way in relation to the different options for achieving universal cover,” he said.