GPs set to ban filling in of forms for patients

Family doctors are set to introduce a ban on filling in forms for patients seeking nursing home subventions, home improvement grants or applications for medical cards as part of their planned industrial action against the Department of Health.

The Irish Medical Organisation's (IMO) GP committee decided in principle on industrial action at a meeting on Thursday evening in protest at what it maintained was a failure by the Department of Health to meet agreed pay awards and include them in a benchmarking process.

However, the row between the doctors and the Government intensified yesterday after it emerged that the Department of Health has refused to pay a 2 per cent increase due last July under the national pay deal.

The president of the Irish Medical Organisation, Dr James Reilly, told The Irish Times last night that as part of an incremental industrial action, GPs would boycott services which they currently provided free for medical card patients.

The ban will include services such as form-filling for nursing home subventions and home improvement grants, the taking of blood and the monitoring of patients receiving warfarin tablets to thin their blood.

Dr Reilly said the industrial action could later be extended to a full-scale withdrawal from the medical card scheme.

The IMO, however, is likely to hold off on the start of the industrial action for a few weeks to see if relations with the Department of Health improve if a new Minister for Health is appointed as part of the Cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday. The Department of Health confirmed last night it had written to the IMO informing it that it would not be paying GPs the 2 per cent increase under the national wage agreement which was given to other healthcare workers in July.

The Department of Health is seeking the GPs to engage in a fundamental review of the operation of the medical card scheme.

However the doctors have refused and said that they will not participate unless millions of euro, which they claim they are owed, are paid and previous agreements are implemented.

The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, said on Thursday that the IMO should use the State's industrial relations machinery to deal with their grievances.

The IMO has argued that the Department of Health reneged on a commitment to establish a parallel benchmarking process for GPs which was agreed as part of the deal to provide everyone over 70 with a medical card regardless of means.

The doctors' trade union has also maintained that the Department of Health has refused to pay a previous 2 per cent award for groups who settled early under the last national pay agreement.

The IMO is also looking for increased fees for providing medical services for refugees and asylum-seekers. The GPs are concerned at revelations in The Irish Times earlier this week that large-scale State investment in primary care, promised under the Government's 2001 strategy, was set to be deferred for three years.

Dr Reilly said last night that there was a growing crisis in general practice in Ireland.