John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegates for attending. I apologise as my voice is failing. I read their submission with interest. We previously discussed at the Committee on the Future of Healthcare the critical role played by GPs and the primary care service at all levels to try to get the health service back on an even keel. The ratio of GPs is 64 per 100,000 people. It needs to be 90:100,000. How can it be achieved? Are there sufficient students in the universities to move to the IGCP for training to increase the ratio? How can Scotland achieve it but not Ireland?

The submission refers to primary care teams. Only 13% of the GPs surveyed reported positively on their experience of such teams. Why is that? I would have expected the figure to be much higher. What can be done to improve it? Everything goes back to trying to deal with as much as possible at primary care level. That would go a long way to solving many problems across all areas.

A significant number of section 39 organisations deal with mental health issues.

While many of these organisations are doing excellent work, what is the experience of the Irish College of General Practitioners, ICGP, in this regard? Do the organisations integrate well with primary care teams and general practitioners? Does each organisation know what the next organisation is doing? Do they refer back to the ICGP? Can we do anything to improve that scenario? I received a query this week from a person who works in this area. Her suggestion was that where possible, these organisations should all be located in one building with shared receptionists and shared costs to try to get the HSE better bang for its buck. I am interested in the view of the ICGP on that suggestion.