Vol. 537 No. 5
358 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children if his Department proposes to carry out a survey of general practitioners and hospital specialists to benchmark the extent of reported gastroenteritis and food poisoning here. [17043/01]
I am advised by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland that the Food Safety Promotion Board has approved provisional funding for a project entitled Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Ireland – A Survey of General Practitioners. The aim of the project is to describe general practitioners' attitudes towards, and practices in the management and prevention of, gastroenteritis, particularly that relating to food borne illness. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland will undertake the project in collaboration with the National Disease Surveillance Centre, the department of epidemiology and public health medicine, UCD, the Food Standards Agency of Northern Ireland and the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, Northern Ireland.
The steering group will include representatives of the Irish College of General Practitioners and the Royal College of General Practitioners. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has indicated that the project, which is due to commence this autumn and to be completed in 2002, will provide valuable information with which to plan all-Ireland community based preventive strategies for food-borne illness.
