Bernard Allen
Ceist:98 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children the regions that have been allocated funds to develop a new general practitioner out of hours co-op; and the funds which have been allocated to each region. [8469/01]
Written Answers. - General Practitioner Services.
Bernard Allen
Ceist:99 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children if all health boards are satisfied with his Department's recent allocation of funds to develop new general practitioner out of hours co-ops in their respective regions. [8470/01]
Bernard Allen
Ceist:106 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children when a national conference on general practitioner co-ops will be held. [8477/01]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 98, 99 and 106 together.
I am committed to addressing the need for an appropriate GP out of hours service. In that regard, I have already funded two major pilot GP out of hours co-operative projects in the SEHB and NEHB areas. Both those projects are well resourced ventures offering participating GPs strong back-up in terms of personnel support and facilities. The objective is to ensure proper patient care combined with offering participating GPs a structured means of organising their out of hours commitments that significantly reduces their actual on call workload.
In both cases, general practitioners have been involved from the outset in promoting and establishing the co-ops. That is certainly consistent with my overall approach to this area which is that all out of hours initiatives must fully involve health boards and general practitioners working together in their introduction and development.
As agreed in advance, both pilot projects are now being evaluated. The results of that evaluation will allow decisions to be made by all involved on the future direction of the out of hours response. It may be that other options will come to the fore as being appropriate either locally or nationally, for example, in the Dublin area, the DUBDOC project – which is also funded by the Department – is an interesting alternative to the co-op model that might be further developed.
It is in order to promote GP involvement and to identify possible alternatives that my Department is organising a national out of hours conference. The event was originally scheduled for the end of this month but was postponed on account of the foot and mouth situation. It has now been provisionally rescheduled for the 27 April and will be held in Dublin.
As a further element in this strategic approach, my Department convened a meeting of all health board primary care units last November and it was unanimously agreed that it would be best to progress the roll-out of actual out of hours projects on an incremental basis that allowed for their proper development in each health board.
It was that consensus that informed the allocations of moneys in 2001 to each health board for out of hours development. The individual allocations were as follows:
|
Health Board |
Funds Allocated |
|
North-Eastern Health Board |
£1,300,000 |
|
South-Eastern Health Board |
£850,000 |
|
Southern Health Board |
£630,000 |
|
Eastern Regional Health Authority |
£260,000 |
|
Midland Health Board |
£160,000 |
|
Mid-Western Health Board |
£140,000 |
|
Western Health Board |
£125,000 |
|
North-Western Health Board |
£100,000 |
The moneys allocated fully reflect the incremental approach being pursued and agreed with the boards in November. Funding for the NEHB and SEHB relates to the current operation of their pilot projects. The funding allocated to the SHB is to enable it to be the next board to undertake a major out of hours project in 2001. The moneys allocated to the other boards are primarily to allow them to undertake the infrastructural work necessary prior to the introduction of a major out of hours project in their areas.
I am satisfied that the approach outlined above is the best way to proceed if we are to introduce a proper value for money out of hours GP service that benefits both patients and doctors in a meaningful way.