Kenny insists Government will deliver on free GP care

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said the Government remains committed to free GP care but admitted a move to extend free doctor’s care to almost 60,000 people with long-term illnesses had been dropped.

His comments came after a report in yesterday's Irish Times said the Government was set to abandon the key election commitment to extend the scheme to those with long-term illnesses as a first step on the way to free GP care for all, due to legal difficulties, and to instead look at alternative ways of phasing in the proposals.

The plan was supposed to have been introduced by March 2012.

Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, Mr Kenny confirmed that legal difficulties meant the roll-out to those with long-term illnesses wouldn’t happen. Minister of State at the Department of Health Alex White will, however, report by the end of the month on alternative ways of extending free GP care to the entire population.

“The Government is fully committed to delivering free GP care in its first term of office and no decision has been taken to go back on that,” said Mr Kenny.

“I’m the first to admit that there are a number of items in the programme for government that have proven not to be deliverable on – this is not one of them.”

'No decision'
However, Minister for Health Dr James Reilly yesterday appeared to contradict Mr Kenny, saying "no decision has been taken by Government to change the approach".

“We have had issues around the legal problems that have come up and we are exploring other ways of expediting it. That’s running in parallel in continuing down the pathway that we set out upon,” he said.

“I want to re-emphasise that this is a critical part of our reform heading towards universal health insurance. Primary care is a critical aspect of it and this is a very important pillar of that,” said Dr Reilly. Asked whether the plan to provide free GP care to some 60,000 people with long-term illnesses in the meantime would be dropped, he said “no decision has been made in that regard”.

“But because we ran into some difficulties – and there have been delays – we are exploring other ways as well in parallel. But no decision has been made to drop that first step in terms of long-term illness; no decision has been made.”

Mr White however also acknowledged that a restructuring of the proposals was taking place – but insisted the plan was not being abandoned.

“There’s an overarching commitment in the programme for government to provide free GP access to the entire community and to do that within the lifetime of the Government – there is no change on that.

'Bogged down legally'
"The issue is about the phasing of that – in other words how you get there – not whether you get there. There was legislation being prepared to extend free GP cards to people with certain chronic illnesses. It's no secret that that particular piece of legislation has run into difficulty – it has become bogged down legally," he said.

“What I have proposed is more realistic and achievable. We will look seriously at the entirety of the plan – how we phase it, how we bring it in, how we cost it – these are really important issues that have to be addressed for the whole plan.

The Irish Medical Organisation accused the Government of “wasting” two years trying to achieve an “impossible” objective.Its GP committee chairman, Dr Ray Walley, said the Government “made the mistake of trying to implement a solution that would look good rather than one that would make a meaningful difference to patients with long-term illnesses”.