GP funding cuts are bad medicine

Highlighting the reduction of the influenza vaccine payments to €15 for GPs does not consider the big picture in general-practice payments (Irish Examiner July, 15).

It is hard to reconcile that figure with the €34 per pandemic vaccine the HSE funded itself in the 2009 public immunisation clinics.

When these cutbacks take effect, the annual income from the medical-card scheme to GPs will be down 5-10% from 2008, to €415m, or 3% of the public-health budget.