DDoc next to face cuts

By Aoife Connors
aoife.connors@imt.ie

DDoc may be the next GP co-op to face swingeing cuts in its annual grant funding, as the HSE is expected to move both it and NEDOC to Special Type Consultation (STC) payments next year, Irish Medical Times has learned.

GPs involved in the DDoc co-op told IMT this week that they were “gravely concerned” that if similar measures were introduced to those proposed in the north east, the Dublin co-op may not have the ability to continue providing the same service in the future.

DDoc faces similar challenges to NEDOC, as both co-ops are structured in a very similar way. They are both funded by a HSE funding grant, unlike the seven other co-ops which are funded through Special Type Consultations (STCs) for out-of-hours GP services. It is expected that confirmation about the future situation for DDoc will be provided at a meeting with the HSE within the next three weeks. A DDoc member told IMT that while NEDOC had had its meeting with the HSE on the issue, DDoc was “awaiting their meeting in mid-September”.

Dr Mel Bates, Medical Director of DDoc, told IMT: “The central issue is that the HSE wishes to change to an STC payment system. It wishes to replace the grant funding with an STC-type payment.”

He added that the co-op’s projections suggested that if STCs were fully implemented, it would represent a “massive cut for the co-op”.

The Dublin-based out-of-hours scheme is also concerned about the GPs’ ability to fulfil their service level agreement (SLA) if the cuts go ahead. “From our point of view, providing doctors to fill the out-of-hours shifts is our remit and that’s our service level agreement, but it’s all dependent on the actual finances that we’re offered by the HSE,” Dr Bates explained.

DDoc provides GP out-of-hours care to over half a million people throughout the north inner city and north county Dublin, from the Liffey to the Meath and Louth border.

As reported in last week’s IMT, NEDOC was informed at a recent meeting with the HSE that the recommendations made in relation to cost effectiveness and value for money in the HSE review of GP out-of-hours services last April were non-negotiable. A number of the recommendations are due to be implemented from January 1, 2011.