FAMILY DOCTORS last year received around €345 million in fees and a further €80 million in practice grants and allowances for operating the general medical services scheme, new figures reveal.
The figures, to be published in a report later this month by the Health Service Executive (HSE), will show that one GP in Dublin received more than €780,000 in fees and practice supports under the scheme, which largely involves the treatment of patients with medical cards.
The new HSE report will identify Dr Anthony Crosby of Raheny in Dublin as the highest earner under the scheme. He received €701,000 in fees and a further €79,000 in practice support funding last year.
Overall, more than one dozen general practices around the country received more than €500,000 in fees under the scheme last year.
The president of the Irish Medical Organisation Dr Martin Daly said last night that the fees set out in the HSE report were global figures and that practice expenses had to be deducted from the amounts concerned.
He said that they reflected the cost of the provision of comprehensive general practitioner services, but that they did not represent income for individual doctors. He said that the practice support grants made available by the HSE to doctors were aimed at contributing to the cost of the provision of practice nurses and secretaries.
However, he said that they did not cover the provision of premises or other bills such as heat, light or insurance.
However, the figures set out in the HSE report do not include any payments made to GPs in respect of treating private patients.
The HSE report will reveal that, on average, GPs received around €160,000 in fees for treating patients covered by the general medical services scheme.
The HSE report will say that it paid out €425 million to GPs in fees and practice support funding last year, compared to around €404 million in 2006.
The report will say that 186 practices each received over €370,001 in total earnings last year, up from 102 in 2006. It will also say that 614 general practices received between €240,000 and €370,000 in total payments, an increase of 90 over the previous year. A further 358 practices were paid between €180,000 and €240,000, according to the new report.
In some cases the fees paid out to GPs were very small. Around 40 doctors received less than €1,000 under the general medical services scheme, with some receiving as little as €115.
The overall general medical services scheme also covers payments to pharmacists, dentists and optometrists.
The Irish Times revealed in March that one pharmacy in Co Dublin last year received over €1 million in fees and mark-up payments from the HSE for dispensing medication under the various community drug schemes
The Irish Pharmacy Union said at the time that the average payment to a pharmacy last year was over €200,000, from which the pharmacist had to cover salaries and overhead costs associated with a high-quality service.
Around 1.3 million people are covered by medical cards, an increase of around 60,000 since last year.