Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 28 October 2004
9 Mr. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children her plans to develop the primary and secondary care aspect of the health services with a view to meeting the growing needs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26345/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Government and I are committed to developing all levels of our health services in a way that meet the needs of people throughout the country. Our strategy is to put in place health services that are accessible and available to people based on their medical needs.
This will require funding and reform together at every level, be it primary, secondary or tertiary care. We will have clear priorities for funding because resources will always be limited. We have clear priorities for reform also because we seek visible improvements in patients' experience of health care at each level.
The Government's funding and reform priorities recognise the central role that primary care has in delivering a quality health service. For most people, their interaction with their GP and others in the GP surgery is their most frequent point of contact with the health services. The effectiveness and quality of primary care affects all the other aspects of health services and the well-being of people. As many have recognised, our primary health care services represent good value for money and a quality service for people, irrespective of whether they are medical card holders or otherwise.
Government policy is to develop further the range and quality of primary health care services throughout the country. The Government has supported the development of GP co-operatives to provide, among other things, the benefits of reliable out-of-hours services to the public. These have been successful in many parts of the country. Where they are not yet developed, I intend to use all available measures to bring about a situation where the public is adequately served by out-of-hours GP services. This is important in its own right but also as a measure to relieve pressure on accident and emergency departments of hospitals.
The Government published a far-seeing primary health care strategy a number of years ago setting out a broad vision for team-based primary health care covering many disciplines in each GP centre. We are at the early stages of moving towards that vision of primary health care. There is great interest among many GPs in developing this form of primary practice. I welcome the ideas and innovations on how we can achieve the services we seek for members of the public, both medical card holders and fee-paying patients.
In regard to secondary care, the Government's strategy is to develop hospital services in every region that will meet the more complex medical needs of patients both for elective and emergency treatment. We aim to develop acute hospital services on a regional basis that will command public confidence within each region, both in relation to elective and emergency services. The Hanly report on acute hospital services contained many proposals that will undoubtedly improve hospital services in each region of the country and will increase public confidence. For example, the recruitment of more consultants to work in teams at accident and emergency 24 hours a day, seven days a week, will improve the services available to the whole population of each region.
The key to our decisions in delivering more services and opening more beds is to make investment match need in a way that is both effective and efficient.
Different services can be provided in different hospitals. Not every procedure needs to be carried out in the most sophisticated and expensive acute hospital setting. Some highly specialised services can best be provided on a national basis; most on a regional basis.
To ensure the highest standards of clinical excellence and outcomes for patients, and to achieve best value for money, we intend to invest in a differentiated way in hospital services, matching services with the needs of the population in each region and nationally. We will also encourage private providers to innovate and to make available services to the public, which may also be capable of being purchased by the State for public patients. This is an established practice which we can make increased use of in ensuring that quality health care services are available to the whole population.
