Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 28 June 2018
12. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Health the status of all primary care centres under construction or opened or both; the healthcare and medical staff working in each operational primary care centre by centre and occupation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27851/18]
View answerMy question is fairly simple and relates to primary care centres. We have had this conversation many times. I have said that if the Minister is serious about primary care he would employ staff. I have asked about staffing in primary care centres and have been told repeatedly that the services will be provided from within existing resources, which is HSE code to the effect that no new staff will be provided. I ask the Minister to outline whether there are plans to adequately staff the centres.
The development of primary care centres supports the shift from acute care to primary care. This is a key priority for the Government and accords with the vision of a reformed health service set out in the Sláintecare cross-party report. These modern facilities provide a setting in which a wide range of health professionals can deliver better care, closer to people's homes in their local communities. The centres are also a key enabler of care delivery on an interdisciplinary basis. When I visit them I see health care professionals working in a multidisciplinary capacity.
There are currently 120 primary care centres operational throughout the country, 12 of which opened in 2018. A further seven are expected to open before the end of the year while another 65 centres are either being developed or in the planning process. I am arranging to provide the Deputy with the details in tabular format.
Data on the number of staff working in individual centres are not compiled centrally by the HSE. There is a good reason for this. The Deputy and I have visited primary care centres. The staff work across centres and in communities and are not employees of an individual primary care centre. I have asked the HSE to provide what information is possible to Deputy O'Reilly. I can assure her that the number of staff working in primary care is increasing quite significantly. This year, for example, we have provided additional funding for 20 additional psychology posts and 114 additional psychologists in the area of responsibility of the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly. Some €4 million has been provided for 83 additional full-time speech and language therapists to come on stream. There will be 40 additional occupational therapists working in our community this year. I can assure the Deputy that we are increasing the number of staff.
I was in a primary care centre in Celbridge, County Kildare, recently. It is being opened alongside a new community intervention team and podiatrist. When I opened a new primary care centre in Carnew, a new wound management clinic was located there. As we open primary care centres, we are not just opening new shiny buildings. Rather, we are looking at the additional services which can be provided, as well as people working on a multidisciplinary basis. The number of staff working in primary care this year has increased on last year, which in turn increased on the year before. It will continue to increase as we reinvest in our health services.
The Minister told me he is not counting the numbers but also that the figure has increased. They are some very fancy calculations. I have asked questions on primary care centres and the consistent answer I have received is that services will be provided from within existing resources. Does the Minister have a figure in mind for what constitutes a multidisciplinary team? How many staff are required? Is there a patient population ratio to primary care centre element? Are they hitting targets? Have any targets been set? Are we simply being told not to worry because figures are increasing and that one should not worry if one does not see them in Balbriggan? I have not seen any there because Balbriggan is not getting any additional staff, something for which I have repeatedly asked. I have said before that the Minister is not serious about primary care because if he was, there would be targets and he would be able to tell us where staff are going or that they are being deployed in the community.
I did not say that we are not counting the numbers. Rather, I said the figures are not compiled centrally. The Deputy wanted to know about each individual primary care centre. As she knows from her time as a Member and her previous life, the staff working in primary care centres are not employees of individual primary care centres.
Many of them work across areas. Many of them work in communities. Many of them are visiting people's houses in the Deputy's constituency and in mine. However, the number of people working in primary care is increasing year on year.
In April 2017, we had 954 medical-dental staff working in primary care; that is 981 this year. In nursing, we had 2,857 in 2017 and that is 2,940 this year. In health and social care professionals we had 2,504 in April 2017 and this had risen to 2,598 by April 2018. There has also been an increase in patient and client care. I will provide the Deputy with this information. The number of staff working in primary care is increasing each year and we will continue to roll out a network of top-class primary care facilities throughout the country because our staff deserve them and it also changes the way they can care for patients in the community, working on a multidisciplinary basis.
