Adminstrative difficulties which led to substantial payments to GPs for up to 20,000 ineligible medical card patients are expected to be ironed out shortly, the Department of Health said yesterday. The overpayments, it is estimated, could amount to millions of euro.
A Department spokeswoman said the Minister, Mr Martin, had ordered a review by health boards of those entitled to the service, following the Government's decision to provide medical cards for everybody over 70 years.
"The aim is to have the matter sorted out in a few weeks. Obviously, the money will have to be recouped," she said.
An Irish Medical Organisation spokeswoman declined to comment. "We have yet to be formally approached by the Department on this issue," she said.
The confusion has occurred because some medical card holders have died, or changed address. GPs working in the medical card scheme receive €438 annually for treatment of patients on their panel who are over 70 years.
The Fine Gael spokeswoman on health, Ms Olivia Mitchell, said the health service was littered with examples of money being wasted because of the absence of basic information.
"The number of over-70s in the State was miscalculated; doctors and pharmacists were overpaid; when healthcare workers were given an increase in salary, a whole category of care workers was forgotten. Breast Check depends on four different partial databases to try to trace its target population," she said.
"In a service already costing over €8 billion annually, and where a further €13 billion investment is required under the health strategy, obtaining value for money is critical. This cannot be achieved when the Minister himself does not know who is working for him or who his clients are. Unless investment and spending decisions are based on accurate information, costly mistakes will continue to be made and patient care will suffer."
Ms Mitchell criticised Mr Martin's decision to abandon the pilot programme to build up a national client eligibility database and his announcement that planned investment in the IT strategy was no longer a priority.
"No private sector company, spending €8 billion annually, would make investment decisions without the most up-to-date and detailed information," she added.
