Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 26 May 2004
94 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for Health and Children his response to the criticism made in the document published at the recent conference of the Irish College of General Practitioners of his Department’s failure to include general practice in its reform programme for the health service; the action he intends to take to address this criticism; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15584/04]
View answerThe national health strategy, Quality and Fairness — A Health System for You, identified six frameworks for change to enable us to achieve the strategy's national goals. One of the frameworks identified is organisational reform which is mapped out in detail in the Government's decision on the health service reform programme based on the recommendations of the following key reports: the audit of structures and functions in the health system or the Prospectus report; the commission on financial management and control systems in the health service or the Brennan report; the report of the national task force on medical staffing or the Hanly report.
The new structure set out in this reform programme will provide a clear national focus on service delivery and executive management through reduced fragmentation and the creation of clear and unambiguous accountability throughout the system. The implementation of the Government's health service reform programme centres around a number of bodies, including the programme's national steering committee, interim Health Service Executive, the Department of Health and Children and the existing health boards/authority. Another of the frameworks within the health strategy is specifically concerned with primary care and recognises the need for a well integrated health system capable of delivering a broad range of health and personal social services in a primary care setting.
My Department acknowledges the crucial role which general practice plays in the delivery of primary care services. This is recognised in the primary care strategy which envisages a multi-disciplinary team model, with the GP as a key member. The strategy also recommends voluntary enrolments of populations with primary care teams and with a particular GP within the team. In the strategy development process, full cognisance was taken of the joint IMO/ICGP document, A Vision of General Practice 2001-2006. Since their establishment in 2002, the initial group of primary care teams have continued to develop and are now demonstrating to service users and providers the benefits of multi-disciplinary team working in primary care service delivery.
The ICGP's response to the Government's health service reform programme expresses concern that the increase in consultant numbers proposed in the Hanly report will lead to a disimprovement in the ratio of GPs to specialists. The Hanly report did not make specific projections regarding GP numbers because its focus, in line with its terms of reference, was on hospital consultants and non-consultant hospital doctors. However, the Hanly report acknowledges that a case has been made for an increase in the number of general practitioners and envisages that this issue will be addressed in the context of the primary care strategy.
In addition to the work currently proceeding under the primary care strategy, my Department is also consulting with the Irish College of General Practitioners to identify any difficulties in service delivery and to address these through an increase in the number of GP training places.
