Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am an ordinary member of the Irish Medical Organisation. Over recent weeks we have been discussing a change of work practice because if we are to change our health service, we must change the health model. I would like the witnesses' views on changing work practices. The work practices for GPs and hospital medicine have been in place for 40 years and the health service has moved on but the practices remain the same. There is huge room for changing work practices, and that feeds into integration between primary and secondary care where there is a big gap. Should that integration be from the top down or the bottom up? We have heard the Carlow-Kilkenny services talk about how they integrated care and the efficiencies that has brought about.

Recruiting GPs to single-handed practices, urban or rural, will be very difficult in the future and we will have to change the model. In rural areas it may be a salaried position but in urban areas it will have to be the primary care centre model. The witnesses might comment on those points.