Dr. John Delap:

To address the issue of neuro patient testing and radiology, the experience and practice of neuro patient testing has not been very good. The technology is expensive. If it is a test that is only used infrequently, it is not worth the investment so, by and large, investigations that are provided by a unit that is set up for the investigation, as opposed to the practice, make more sense.

I have two examples of radiology in general practice. I trained in the UK a very long time ago. The practice where I trained was established by the Nuffield Trust and a radiology unit was put in place in the mid-1970s. By the time I was there in the early 1980s, the radiology unit had been closed because it was not effective. Likewise, the Ballymun health centre had a radiology unit fitted to it when it was built, and that room is still unused. Bringing radiology out to GP practices is something that has not been successful so far. However, there have been initiatives to give GPs additional access to imaging in ultrasound and radiology in the past, which has certainly benefited patients.