GPs outstanding medical card fees to be paid

The possibility of family doctors withdrawing from the medical card scheme was dramatically averted this evening.

The Secretary General of the Department of Health, Mr Michael Kelly, assured GPs tonight they would be paid the outstanding fees.

The dispute between the GPs - represented by the Irish Medical Organisation - and the Department led to a unanimous vote at the union’s AGM in Killarney this evening for doctors to withdraw from the scheme.

However, this threat has now been lifted. Dr Roland Boland, a member of the IMO GP Committee, told ireland.comthat the department still had to make good on its assurances and ensure the outstanding fees were paid by April 19th.

The IMO said it would discuss the procedural issues which had created the dispute with the Department with a view to preventing any more difficulties.

The IMO estimates individual GPs are owed between €8,000 to €10,000 for services under a deal agreed a year ago.

GPs had threatened to impose a €5 charge on patients from Friday, April 19th if they were not paid by then. Any funds collected would have been donated to the St Vincent de Paul.

And in a separate development, the Department of Health has admitted that its allowance for the cost of medical cards for the over 70s will have to be greatly increased.

It had originally forecasted a cost of approximately €19 million based on an estimated 39,000 eligible persons. However the most recent figures available suggest that up to 71,000 are eligible with the department facing a bill of more than €30 million this year.