Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their detailed presentation and the documentation we have received. As regards the area of specialisation, how many specialists are working in this area and how are we doing in terms of the ratio of specialists to population? Is there a need for a lot more people in this area?

The first point of contact people have is with their GP and a lot of GPs are working together as groups now rather than on an individual basis. Is there a need to encourage sub-specialisation by GPs in each region so that people can have access to a quality service?

I note from Ms Denning's presentation that support services available from health professionals for the management of the disease were rated as poor by 46.5%. What needs to be done within the medical profession to improve that rating? A figure of 46.5% is a very high proportion of people to consider the level of health care they received to be poor.

The second issue follows from Senator van Turnhout's point about dieticians. I know of one case, for instance, where dieticians in hospitals will not see people who are pregnant unless they have been diagnosed with diabetes, which I find astonishing. It would be far more beneficial also if dieticians based in hospitals could visit or if there were some scheme in place for them to visit nursing homes, because the current procedure is that a patient who wants to get support from a dietician in a hospital must be transported from the nursing home to the hospital and back, at huge cost. An issue is arising in nursing homes where there are dieticians - and this is not a criticism of these dieticians - who are employed by pharmaceutical companies, who are visiting nursing homes and giving favourable-----