PARENTS ‘ABUSING FREE CHILD VISITS’ SAY GPs
Free care scheme is being overused, doctors say
SOME PARENTS are abusing the free GP care scheme for under-sixes, bringing their infant to the doctor more than 50 times in a year, a GP has revealed.
Dr Andrew Jordan, chairman of the National Association of General Practitioners, told the Irish Daily Mail he had experienced a surge in visits to his clinic in Tallaght in Dublin since under-sixes were given free access.
‘Of course it has increased, we all have those patients,’ he said.
‘You have the same number of GPs with a huge increase in visiting rate and the consequence of that then is you displace other sick people.
‘I would have seen that, every doctor in the country will have.
‘We have patients who have been in over 50 times in a year.’
GP Michelle O’Connor, who is based in Newcastle West, Co. Limerick has experienced a 40% increase in the attendance of young children to her practice since free GP care for under-sixes was introduced.
Dr O’Connor said there were a number of infants who had been brought to her clinic more than 30 times in their first year of life, not including their normal vaccination and developmental checks.
In an open letter to Oireachtas Health Committee chairman Dr Michael Harty, Dr O’Connor urged the Limerick TD to advocate for greater resourcing for GP care in Ireland before universal free GP care was considered.
Free GP care for all is endorsed in the ten-year plan for the Irish health service that was published last month.
The Dáil will debate the ‘Slaintecare’ report compiled by the future of healthcare committee chaired by Social Democrats TD Róisín Shortall in the coming weeks.
Dr O’Connor wrote: ‘Since the implementation of the free GP care for children under six, attendance of such children at my practice has increased by 40%.
‘This has also been reflected in the Shannondoc out-of-hours service and I have several children under two who have attended more than 30 times in the first year of life, outside of vaccinations and developmental checks.’
‘This illustrates that people do not appreciate that which is free and instead overuse it.
‘This has resulted in elderly people being unable to access the GP when they need to be seen and increased the number of people needing admission to hospital.’
Dr Jordan said he was reluctant to blame parents but took issue with the lack of resources to meet the growing demand for services triggered by the free care.
Dr O’Connor told the Mail yesterday: ‘Universal healthcare is a great idea in theory. However, at the moment we don’t have the resources to do it.’
She added: ‘If they do insist on going ahead with it over the next couple of years, we’re going to have the same system as the NHS where you’re waiting a week to see your GP.’