Seán Barrett
Ceist:111 Mr. Barrett asked the Minister for Health and Children if the Government intends to carry out a review of general practice services; and if so, the scope and timescale of any such review. [9976/01]
Written Answers. - General Medical Practice.
Health board chief executive officers, with significant input from my Department, undertook a major review of general medical practice which they completed last September. In particular the review was concerned to systematically enumerate those existing infrastructural difficulties which currently impede progress and to provide a vision of the future development of general practice.
I recently obtained Government agreement to move forward in this area. The next stage of the review process will therefore involve a major consultative exercise with the relevant representative bodies, in particular, the Irish Medical Organisation and the Irish College of General Practitioners which have jointly produced their own vision statement on the future development of general practice. That statement will also be fully considered in the planned consultative process.
The proposed consultative stage of the review process will be a very wide-ranging one. It will address all aspects of general practice, including infrastuctural issues relating to practice organisation, the provision of appropriate out-of-hours primary care services, the scope for the provision of preventative services in general practice, better linkages with other healthcare sectors, computerisation, etc. I envisage that the consultative process will commence in the next few weeks. Given the nature and scope of the challenge involved, it is likely that it will extend over a considerable period.
The end result of the review process will be the establishment of the structures and strategies necessary to ensure the proper development of general practice over a timeframe of several years as a key part of the integrated health care service of the future.