Brian Stanley raises the continuing shortage of GPs in County Laois and warns the gap is forcing families to seek care in hospital A&E for common illnesses. He challenges the hands-off response and calls for directly-employed GPs in areas of rapid population growth.
Immediate concern and local cases. Stanley describes recent instances where parents could not find a local GP, forcing one parent to take time off work to travel to Dublin. He says patients are attending accident and emergency units for minor illnesses, creating a public health and service-pressure problem.
Government response and strategic review. The HSE reply noted it could not advise on the number of private GP practices in County Leach; Stanley says that answer is insufficient where provision relies heavily on private practices. He notes a strategic review of general practice is under way and urges the government to consider directly-employed GPs in growth areas.
Funding, access and alternatives. Stanley sets the GP shortage against recent investment in general practice, citing the 2019 GP agreement and the 2023 GP agreement, and estimates about 1 billion euro spent annually on general practice. He also highlights expanded pharmacy prescribing for a limited set of conditions and calls for more flexible primary care access to reduce pressure on A&E.
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Thanks Commean Comhairle. The short issue I'm raising is the shortage of GPs and I'm raising it again particularly in the case of County Leach. There's a shortage of GPs in the main towns. There's a problem for medically-powered patients and for non-medically-powered patients. Families with children. Two families in the last few days tried to get a GP in Port Leach, Port Arranch, they're not medic. One parent had to take time off work to go to a practice in Dublin. So people are going to the accident and emergency unit for treatment. That's what's happening with common illnesses. So there's a public health issue here. We've had a huge population increase. An HSE reply and one sentence says, the HSE is not in a position to advise on the number of private GP practices providing primary care in County Leach, blah blah. So I'm not blaming the HSE, but because of the system we rely solely on the private ones, that kind of an answer is not suffice. And what I'm saying to you is it can't be hands-off. Now there's a strategic review underway and I'm aware of that. And that strategic review is supposed to be considering directly-implied GPs. And what I'm asking you as a government to do is that where there's areas of serious population growth, such as County Leach, that you imply a few directly-implied GPs. The Minister was down last week. We had the opening of the A&E unit. But the A&E unit is getting to a point where people should be treated in primary care. Basically, we're spending about 1 billion euro annually in general practice to support patients. 43% of the population now have access to free GP care. And government investment has significantly increased. There is a strategic review of general practice, Deputy, currently underway. And I presume it will take on board some of the issues that you've raised in terms of growth areas and population and the need for greater access to GPs more generally. Also, there's been increased access to pharmacy capacities in respect of some conditions, which is, I think, about eight conditions which pharmacists can now diagnose and prescribe treatment for. We do have to become more flexible in how we enable people to access primary care services. We have invested significantly in general practice. The 2019 GP agreement is about an extra $211 million put in and a further $113 million under the 2023 GP agreement.
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