Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Burke for coming before the committee. I have been reading her writings for many years. I am a general practitioner, GP, and I understand intimately the problems faced by the health service. I have a number of questions. First, how significant are staff shortages with regard to the delivery of services? In particular, how significant are our work practices, both in general practice and within the hospital? I believe there is a huge gap between primary and secondary care, and a lack of integration, communication and information technology? How significant are those factors?

Second, does Dr. Burke believe that primary and community care have the capacity to take on a significant increased workload in chronic disease management? Can it be an equal partner in the primary care-secondary care interface? With regard to reconfiguration, which Dr. Burke said probably has not led to much improvement in the health service, reconfiguration went ahead without actually reconfiguring the services to a new location. They closed down services but they did not put them into the centres of excellence.