Health professionals have denied any suggestion that they have profited from the changeover to the euro. An unpublished Forfás report has found that prices for the services of doctors, dentists and pharmacists - among a range of groups - rose sharply during the changeover. The findings were revealed in yesterday's Irish Times.
General practitioner fees went up but not because of the euro, Dr James Reilly, chairman of the GP Committee of the Irish Medical Organisation, said yesterday.
"I would reject any suggestion that there was a surreptitious rounding up of fees."
Medical inflation rose by 9-15 per cent annually, he said. GPs were being encouraged to work out of purpose-built surgeries and to employ additional people such as nurses and practice managers, he said. All this "costs money" which was not fully covered in any grants which may be available.
GPs also had to meet a 50 per cent rise in the cost of subscriptions to medical defence bodies, which meet the cost of damages awarded against family doctors.
Hospital doctors earning €55,000 to €60,000 a year were looking at GPs on an income "not much more than that" and were deciding they did not want the hassle that went with running a general practice, he said. GP fees were in the range €30 to €50 with the bulk of them about €40 to €45.
The Irish Dental Association said 82 per cent of the population was covered under State-funded schemes and there was no increase in the fees paid to dentists for work done under these schemes during the euro changeover period.
"Regarding the remaining 18 per cent of the population, who receive private dental treatment, the association as of now has no evidence of profiteering during the euro changeover period," the association's secretary general, Mr Donal Atkins, said.
"It is worth noting that there is a high level of competition in the profession and no price setting," he added. "Consequently the market finds its own level."
The fee for a basic amalgam filling is €39.62 under State-funded schemes and €45 to €75 for private work.
The president of the Irish Pharmaceutical Union, Mr Richard Collis, said the prices of prescribed medicines were agreed between the Department of Health and Children and the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association. Therefore they could not have been affected by the euro changeover. As regards over-the-counter medicines, he said: "I have not noticed any significant price increases in these over the past six months."