Seanad defeat for Coalition on ‘gagging clause’ for GPs in free care scheme

The Government suffered an embarrassing defeat in the Seanad yesterday on the Bill providing for free GP care for children under six years.

Independent Senator Prof John Crown moved an amendment to the Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill excluding any provision restricting criticism by a GP of the Health Service Executive (HSE) or the Department of Health.

"General practice in Ireland, which is sometimes called primary health care or family practice, is the least dysfunctional part of our therapeutic health system,'' he said.

Prof Crown said the primary loyalty of any health care provider should be to their patient, not to the system. “However, if we begin to impose any kind of a gagging order on GPs in determining whether they can or cannot be signed into the scheme and, accordingly, be a participant, then we are giving the State an inappropriate and awesome level of power,’’ he added.

Rejecting the amendment, Minister of State for Health Alex White said it had clearly been prompted by what had been referred to as "a gagging clause'' in the draft contract. This clause was intended to reflect and be protective of the HSE's interests, given that the primary statutory obligation to provide general practitioner medical and surgery services would rest with it.

“It is not in any sense intended to impose unwarranted or inappropriate restrictions on individual GP contractors advocating on behalf of their patients,’’ he added.

The amendment was passed by 27 votes to 26. Taoiseach's Seanad nominees Fiach Mac Conghail, Mary Ann O'Brien, Marie-Louise O'Donnell, Jillian van Turnhout and Katherine Zappone voted with the Opposition.