The Government is fully committed to the implementation of the principles contained in the Primary Care Strategy and this includes the development of primary care teams and networks. The implementation process at operational level is a function of the Health Service Executive, whose Chief Executive Officer has identified as a priority the development of multidisciplinary primary care services, both as the appropriate service to meet people's health and social care needs and to complement the services provided by acute hospitals.
The 2006 Estimate for the HSE includes an additional €10 million in revenue funding to enable the establishment of up to 100 new primary care teams. This will enable the provision of some 300 additional frontline personnel to work alongside GPs in order to provide integrated and accessible services in the community. Work by the HSE to establish these teams is under way. In planning for the establishment of these teams, the Executive intends to focus where possible on areas of disadvantage and with significant health inequalities.
The HSE will also, as part of the ongoing restructuring and reorientation of resources nationally, work towards the establishment of primary care networks of health and social care professionals that will include chiropodists.
Ongoing implementation of the Primary Care Strategy will focus on the reorganisation of the resources already available to the health service and on developing new ways of working in line with the service model described in the Strategy. This whole-system approach to implementation means change will be required in many sectors in the health service, and not solely within primary care. It is within this context that additional resources can be deployed to best effect.