THE cost of GP appointments could fall significantly as part of a raft of measures being considered by the Social Security Minister.
Last week, Deputy Elaine Millar has confirmed that she intends to bring forward plans which would provide a ‘decent reduction’ to the cost of visiting a GP. The proposals will include measures to support doctors in light of the rising costs of running practices.
The cost of visiting a doctor is subsidised by the government through the Health Insurance Fund. However, the rebate paid to practices has been unchanged for a decade, and the price of visits has built up.
At a meeting of the Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel yesterday, Deputy Millar said that just upping the rebate was not a viable option as GP practices were facing increased operational costs which could mean any subsidy would not be passed on to Islanders.
She said: ‘There is clearly an issue around the cost of GP appointments. They vary between, I think approximately, £40 and £55 depending on the practice.
‘We could increase the rebate by £10 and the practices could increase their charges by £10 the following week and nobody gains, so we are working with the doctors to find a scheme which means that patient costs will come down and will also recognise increased operating costs for doctors. We are working towards something that will give the doctors something towards their own costs plus bringing patient costs down but those are commercial negotiations.’
She added that making progress on this was ‘something I want to do as a priority’ and that there was support from the States Assembly for the move.
‘We need to make sure that any increase in the benefit does actually benefit the patients and doesn’t get swallowed up by doctors’ operating costs because the doctors are businesses like everybody else and they are facing the same pressures as other businesses with staff costs and insurance costs and premises so they are telling us that they are having the same cost-of-living pressures so we need to find a way of recognising that,’ she added.
