Vol. 532 No. 1
178 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children if he has received a report on the evaluation of his Department's pilot general practitioner co-operative in the north east area; and, if so, if he will publish that report. [6550/01]
188 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children if he expects alternative proposals to the general practice co-operative model to emerge. [6560/01]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 178 and 188 together.
My stated objective is to promote, facilitate and provide an appropriate primary care service that is responsive to the needs of patients in a manner that is efficient, effective, economic and equitable. The provision of an appropriate general practitioner out of hours service is an essential aspect of moving forward in this area. The increasing public perception of difficulties in accessing GP services at nights, weekends and public holidays has placed growing and inappropriate pressures on hospitals, especially accident and emergency departments. Accompanying this trend has been a substantial increase in costs for those out of hours GP services that were provided.
The development of the out-of-hours GP co-operative model is seen by me as an innovative way to progress service delivery and meet patients' needs but it is important that it is capable of being cost-effective too. It is possible that there are other more appropriate models that should also be considered. There are two major GP out of hours co-operative models being piloted in the NEHB and SEHB, Carlow and Kilkenny, areas. They will shortly be subject to a rigorous and independent evaluation and, following that evaluation, decisions can be made on how the concept can be best developed for providing appropriate out of hours GP services to the rest of the country. I fully intend that the evaluation reports will be made publicly available when completed.
