Ruairí Quinn
Question:83 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Health and Children the progress made to date in implementing the report of the primary care task force; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12022/03]
Written Answers. - Primary Care.
The aims of the primary care strategy, Primary Care: A New Direction, are to provide a strengthened primary care system which will play a more central role as the first and ongoing point of contact for people with the health-care system; an integrated, inter-disciplinary, high quality, team-based and user-friendly set of services for the public; and enhanced capacity for primary care in the areas of disease prevention, rehabilitation and personal social services to complement the existing diagnosis and treatment focus.
This strategy sets out an implementation plan with an incremental approach which recognises the breadth of the change that will be required to support the roll-out of the new primary care model over the next decade. Since the launch of this strategy in November 2001, a number of essential implementation steps have been taken.
In April 2002 I established the primary care task force within my Department to drive the implementation of the changes and developments set out in the model. I established a national primary care steering group in June 2002 to give national leadership and guidance in relation to several key elements of the implementation plan. At regional level the health boards have also been requested to put in place structures to drive forward the implementation of the strategy.
In October 2002 I gave approval to the establishment of ten implementation projects – one in each health board area. These projects will build on the services and resources already in place in the locations involved so as to develop a primary care team in line with the inter-disciplinary model described in the strategy. My Department is working to support the health boards in the development of these projects on an ongoing basis. This has included the holding of meetings and a national seminar to enable key issues to be discussed and explored with those responsible for the development and implementation of the teams at local level.
I have committed a total of €8.4 million to these projects over 2002 and 2003. Revenue funding of €877,000 was provided in 2002, and this allocation was increased to €4.5 million in 2003. Once-off capital funding of €2 million and a further €1 million in respect of information and communications technology supports for the teams was also provided in 2002.
The Office for Health Management has been commissioned by my Department to put in place a support programme for those involved in the setting up of the ten initial implementation projects. In addition, a workshop for those senior managers directly responsible for driving forward the changes required by the primary care strategy was held in April of this year.
The preparation of needs assessments is also being progressed by the health boards. I understand that work on the initial macro-level assessments is near to completion and will be followed by the development of models that can be used at local level for primary care team and network populations.
A national conference on the primary care strategy was held in Galway in October 2002. This was the first conference organised at a national level to discuss, in partnership with the key stakeholders and organisations, the implementation of the strategy. It provided a valuable opportunity for participants to identify and discuss many of the issues which will arise as the implementation of the strategy proceeds.
In November 2002 I provided funding of €360,000 for the establishment of three research fellowships in primary care, in the university departments of general practice. The fellowships, which will be funded through the Health Research Board and available to the professions who will work in the new primary care teams, will enable the researchers to work on topics relevant to the implementation of the primary care strategy. In addition, my Department has also agreed to make funding of €750,000 available over a three-year period to the university departments of general practice to support specific activity in support of the implementation of the primary care strategy. Funding is also being provided to enable a research development officer be appointed in the Irish College of General Practitioners, ICGP, for a three-year period.