Statement Issued - 28 August 2017 IMO describes publication of GP Payment Figures as “misleading and unhelpful

GPs responsible for over 25 million clinical consultations per year

Monday 28th August 2017. The GP Committee of the IMO has criticized the publication by the HSE today of payments made to GP practices as “misleading and unhelpful”. Dr. Padraig McGarry, Chairman of the IMO GP Committee, said that the figures provided by the HSE were utterly misleading and implied that GPs were receiving much more income than was actually the case; “The figures are gross figures which take no account of the substantial costs incurred by GPs in providing services including cost of premises, staff, technology, insurance and every other business cost that they are liable for.”

Dr. McGarry said that the GPs engaged in over 25 million clinical consultations a year and over €160 million had been taken out of GP services since the financial crisis.

Dr. McGarry said that GP services remained under-resourced compared to every other European country and this was having disastrous consequences for other parts of the health services.