Many family doctors are so frustrated with the Department of Health about its failure to honour existing agreements, they do not want to co-operate with the introduction of new doctor-only medical cards, the Irish Medical Organisation has claimed.
Dr Martin Daly, chairman of the national GP committee of the IMO said yesterday that he and the leadership of the organisation wanted to act responsibly over the introduction of the new cards, which he welcomed for low- income families. However, he was coming under pressure not to do so from members of the organisation.
He said members were frustrated over the failure to honour previous issues around payment for the care of existing medical card holders and felt they should not co-operate with the new cards unless existing agreements were honoured.
Dr Daly stressed he did not wish to fight with the Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Ms Harney, on the issue and would prefer to talk to her. "These problems are not insurmountable," he said.
Ms Harney announced in November that she planned to issue an extra 30,000 medical cards this year as well as a new type of card to 200,000 people that would allow them to visit their GP for free.
However, these doctor-only cards would not cover any drugs the holders might need to get from their pharmacy.
Legislation is required to issue the new cards and Ms Harney said yesterday she hoped to bring it to Government in the next two weeks.
She hoped it would allow her to begin issuing the doctor-only cards in April.
Ms Harney said she believed no negotiations were required with the IMO on the issuing of the new cards given that they were being handed out on a means-tested basis.
Dr Daly had said in November, when the IMO published its pre-budget submission, that no negotiation was required with the IMO to extend medical card eligibility to 40 per cent of the population (28 per cent are now covered) "once it's done on a fair, means-tested basis".
Yesterday he said he wanted to act "responsibly", but members were putting pressure on him to adopt a tougher stance.
"We are under severe pressure from our members on the ground. They are asking why should they take on additional work when existing agreements have not been honoured," he said.
He also expressed surprise that the Department of Health had not yet spoken to the IMO about how the new doctor-only cards would be administered.
He believes a "holistic" approach should be taken to the new cards and members' outstanding grievances.
"We need to try and synchronise all these issues in order to deliver what the Minister wants," he said.
Meanwhile, Labour's health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, claimed Ms Harney was naive if she believed the new doctor-only medical cards could be introduced in the absence of detailed discussions with doctors and their representatives.