Ongoing impact of Fempi measures

Sir, – You report Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe as saying that all of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act (Fempi) measures from 2008 have been unwound (News, July 1st).

This will come as a surprise to community pharmacists. We are still subject to the same reduced fees that were imposed in 2008 as part of the Fempi cuts.

Perhaps he might meet with his Cabinet colleague in the Department of Health to complete the unrolling of this element of Fempi. – Yours, etc,

DAVID JORDAN, MPSI

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Dublin 12.

Sir, – I have no doubt the Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe is perfectly correct when he says the Fempi legislation introduced after the 2008 crash has been completely unwound.

However, there has been collateral damage.

Fempi has proven to be the Humpty Dumpty of our health services. Although Fempi was reversed financially, not everything else was. The failure to restore an inherently fair payment system of supporting family medical practitioners, weighted in favour of patient age and demographics, and removed by Fempi for questionable financial gain, was the entropy that resulted in the future of single-handed rural practice disappearing forever. The distance coding system as part of the General Medical Services (GMS) contract ensured the ongoing viability of the commonly found rural single-handed practice. This was particularly the case in the more remote rural locations where the patients were older and living greater distances from their GP.

Our crowded emergency departments and ongoing difficulties with the recruitment and retention of doctors to single-handed rural practices stem from those cuts, and bear testament to their removal.

Post-Fempi it is clear that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put poor Humpty together again.

As a result of this, and the ever-increasing workload of eligible patients, young doctors are voting with their feet, and rural populations continue to suffer, and our hospital A&Es are bulging with A&E doctors and patients on trolleys. – Yours, etc,

Dr JERRY COWLEY,

General Practitioner,

Mulranny,

Co Mayo.