Dr. Emmet Kerin:

I completely agree with Senator Swanick that professionalism is at the core of general practice and it is what keeps the whole thing going. I thank him for that acknowledgement. We touched on a few areas before he arrived. I will focus on the things we did not discuss; there is some overlap with what Senator Colm Burke said. I totally agree that we need to get diagnostics to work. Arising from this meeting the committee should call for a funding model to make this a reality in primary care.

In the mid-west, we now have the HSE-led ultrasound service in St. Camillus's Hospital in Limerick which is accessible to GPs. I book ultrasound scans through the software I pay for. I can get ultrasound scans for my patients within two to three weeks. It is absolutely fantastic and I praise the local HSE. That came from a sustained lobby at a local level, but has not been translated. Those of us sitting at this table have completely different access to diagnostics, but this is an example of something that is working really well in Limerick. Why is it in Limerick and not in other parts of the country? That is absolutely ridiculous. That is an early win and we can drive that. I hope that will come out of today's meeting.