HSE boss says there should be no stigma about having GP visit card

HSE CEO Bernard Gloster: Encouraging people to avail of GP visit cards if they are eligible. Picture: Fintan Clarke

HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster has said there should be no stigma about having a GP visit card and urged all those eligible to apply.

This follows shock at the extremely low take-up of GP visit cards with fewer than 39,000 applying for cards out of a potential 430,000 eligible people since September.

Dr Tadhg Crowley, chair of the Irish Medical Organisation’s GP committee previously told the Irish Examiner he has seen patients express concern about being perceived to be poor in society.

Mr Gloster said on Saturday the HSE continues to advise people what they are entitled to, and that he would encourage them to take it up.

Referring to concerns around stigma, he said: “I would think it is the most healthy thing for somebody to have, either free GP access or subvented access, that’s a very good thing.” 

He also said concerns around how complex the application process is to use are not reflected in research and polls the HSE have carried out on these cards. 

“We have to work harder,” he told reporters during the IMO’s annual general meeting.

“So, regardless of us saying the process isn’t overcomplex, it is incumbent on us as the provider to make people aware of what they are entitled to and how to get that.” 

Mr Gloster also addressed the issue of the ongoing and contentious recruitment freeze in most roles in the HSE.

He would not give an end date for the situation.

“My job is to continue to manage the workforce I have, that workforce is currently in excess of what I was funded to have”, he said when asked if it would end this year.

“I am working with the minister, the secretary general, and the department [of health] and the Department of Public Expenditure to work through how do we plan and communicate clearly to everybody what is the workforce position for the future.” 

He said that would allow a more understandable recruitment pattern instead of having to pause recruitment.

He said the health minister Stephen Donnelly is working out how to manage workforce growth “without having to have this continuation of a pause”.

Mr Gloster’s expectation is that in future the HSE will have a set funded workforce and those limits will have to be maintained.

“We have never had the amount of money we currently have”, he said, saying there is “enormous money” available to the HSE now.

He said last year despite the recruitment freeze being in place since October they still hired more people than was targeted for with derogations in place for some roles.

“In January and February this year, we still increased the numbers in the workforce,” he said despite the freeze continuing.

The IMO’s new president Denis McCauley and the chair of the non-hospital consultant doctor’s committee Rachel McNamara both expressed concerns at the impact of the freeze.

Dr McCauley said: “The current HSE recruitment freeze is exacerbating problems and posing enormous strain on a system already under pressure."

Dr McNamara warned that “dangerous conditions” are being created for patients due to the low number of non-consultant hospital doctors, formerly known as junior doctors.