Free care for under-6s ‘means longer delays’

Family doctors claim the scheme is putting more pressure on hospitals

GPS have revealed that they are being forced to delay medical appointments for young children, in a blow to the promise to give free treatment to all under-sixes.

The Government scheme offered free access to hundreds of thousands of youngsters the resources were not provided, according to the family doctors who say they have been swamped with the demands.

However, the head of the National Association for General Practitioners, Dr Emmet Kerin, said they were not blaming the parents but the politicians who had foisted this upon general practices without providing the support needed.

The new service was supposed help alleviate the pressure on hospitals. However, Dr Kerin said that because of the pressure some practices were forced to refer more patients to hospital.

He said doctors were ‘triaging’ children who came for free appointments, to separate urgent from non-urgent cases.

This comes as the 10-year strategy for healthcare has been pushed back again. GPs have raised concerns about their ability to treat large numbers of children, and Dr Kerin, from Limerick, said: ‘In my own practice we’ve had to try and adjust to this, we’re screening at the front desk for how ill is this child, does this child need to be seen today or in a few days, depending on what the query is. In the past GPs provided a lot of services but now when your back is against the wall and you are letting staff go, you have to start referring into the hospital.

‘This is something we are seeing more and more.’

On April 1 this year, 2.12 million people held a medical card or GP visit card, while 364,426 children under six had free access to care. Care is given by 2,482 GPs to medical card patients, with 2,350 of those medics registered to give free care to children. Dr Kerin added: ‘I’m not giving out here to parents, I am giving out to politicians who foisted this on us.’

Meanwhile, the NAGP annual conference heard yesterday that members should be prepared for a row with the Government.

Monaghan GP Shane Corr, who is on the union’s national council, said: ‘In my opinion a confrontation is coming. When the under-sixes care was introduced, we bottled it, we rolled over and worked hard and now that is taken for granted.

‘If we bottle it again we may as well all give up.’

The Government intended to extend free care to children up to the age of 12 this year.

However, Health Minister Simon Harris recently said this would only happen when he could agree to a new contact with GPs.

‘I’m not giving out here about the parents’