asked the Minister when he proposes to implement the recommendations of the study group set up by him to examine the child health services.
91.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Child Health Services.
88.
asked the Minister for Health if, in the light of the report of the study group on the child health services, he now proposes to abolish the statutory provision whereby only those children examined in the course of a school health medical examination are entitled to free treatment.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 88 and 91 together.
I will decide on the implementation of the recommendations of the study group report on the child health services, including the recommendation relating to eligibility for free treatment, as soon as I have received and considered the views of the health authorities, and the medical, educational and other interested bodies which I have consulted.
89.
asked the Minister for Health the number of family doctors appointed by him to the study group on the child health services.
90.
asked the Minister for Health if he will give details of the members of the study group on the child health services set up by him.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 89 and 90 together.
I would refer the Deputy to the report of the study group on the child health services which was laid before the House on 13th August, 1968 and contains details of the members of the study group.
The study group included the chief medical officer and a senior medical officer of my Department, a chief medical officer and two assistant chief medical officers on the staff of health authorities, and a consultant paediatrician.
There was no private general practitioner, as such, on the group.
Will the Minister say why no family doctor was included in this group?
A number of doctors in the group had experience of general practice.
Would the Minister mention who had? There are doctors in the Minister's Department, civil servants. Let us be straight. The Minister had no family doctor in this group who would be in a position to give proper information as to what was necessary for the child health service.
This is not a fair allegation at all.
Will the Minister state why no family doctor was in the group?
I do not think it proper to make that statement at all. The study group, as the Deputy well knows, were not confined at all as to their recommendations. They made recommendations which brought the family doctor very much into the picture.
A family doctor would be much better able to know what was needed in the child health service. It is the family doctor who deals with children all the time and would it not have been better to have a family doctor in the group than a civil servant? Will the Minister not include family doctors in study groups and commissions?
Something like 90 per cent of the defects are discovered not through family doctors, general practitioners, but through the public service. The members of the study group were quite competent to make a report, just as competent as any family doctor, as the Deputy chooses to describe him. The contents of the report prove this. There is no suggestion that the family doctor was being in any way discriminated against.
Can I have an assurance that in future we will have family doctors included in such groups? Does the Minister not think that that is a reasonable request?
I think we have dealt sufficiently with it.
The Minister is evading the issue.
I am not prepared to give the undertaking.
The Minister is incompetent.