Doctors say cuts to their income making the provision of free blood tests and monitoring untenable, writes JOANNE HUNT
MEDICAL CARD holders may face charges for blood tests and blood pressure monitoring as GPs say cuts to their income are making the provision of these services for free untenable.
The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has advised GPs that “routine blood tests, Warfarin monitoring, 24-hour blood pressure monitoring, and women’s and men’s health clinics”, once provided free to medical card holders, are not covered under GPs’ General Medical Services (GMS) contract with the Health Service Executive.
While the IMO said it hasn’t advised doctors to charge for these services, it says it is up to GPs “whether they wish to charge or how they wish to charge”.
The issue was highlighted on RTÉ’s Liveline radio programme yesterday when a woman, whose parents are medical card holders attending a Leitrim GP, complained that they were being asked to pay €10 for blood tests and €15 for blood pressure checks, which had been free.
The doctor in question, Dr Antoinette Gregan, said: “Everybody has this idea that GPs are doing extremely well and are being extremely well paid but the reality is a bit different.”
Dr Gregan said she had no choice but to introduce fees from March 28th.
Dr Ronan Boland, chairman of the IMO’s GP committee said: “The GMS contract is 22 years old. A lot of the services that patients wish to avail of didn’t even exist in 1989.”
Boland said that while there has been agreement over the past 10 years that the contract needs to be renegotiated, nothing has happened.
“The fees that fund practice have been cut three times in the past two years . . . and also the subsidies needed to pay for the employment of nurses and secretaries. Practices are looking at how they can continue to operate in this context.”
Dr Boland said the IMO had predicted that a lot of the pro bono work done by GPs would have to stop as GPs could not continue to afford to pay nurses. In recent weeks, the IMO sent a circular to GPs, which it says has clarified for doctors the services that, in its view, are not covered by the GMS contract.
However, the HSE has urged patients to alert them if they are charged for blood tests. “The routine taking of blood samples from patients forms part of the normal and necessary treatment of patients undertaken by a GP and as such would normally be covered under the Medical Card Scheme, meaning that the card holder should not be charged,” the HSE said.
“The HSE provides funding to GPs, which significantly subsidises the cost to the GP of employing a practice nurse. In many cases it is the practice nurse who is responsible for the taking of blood samples. If a patient has information about a GP charging inappropriately they should contact their HSE local health office.”
Dr Boland said: “If a GP decides to charge, it’s important that the patient is made aware that these services are available free from a hospital.”