Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

During the Sláintecare report process, all members of the committee became expert in the inverse care law and Tudor Hart and could lecture on it by the time our deliberations had concluded. We had a very important meeting with Deep End Ireland, which outlined the inverse care law and the deprivation index that should be applied to payments and resources for general practice.

Coming back to the reason we are here, the media articles to which we responded were about the medical profession overprescribing anti-depressants, benzodiazepines, painkillers and opiates. There may or may not be a basis for that but certainly there is a delay in people receiving chronic care for conditions such as osteoarthritis and hip and knee replacements. I am very impressed with the prescription the professor has brought along because the patient is not on a sleeping pill or benzodiazepine. That is probably an exception to the rule because there is an increasing demand for benzodiazepines which we, as a profession, are trying to resist. Many years ago, GPs were accused of under-prescribing for depression. The accusation now, perhaps, is that we are overprescribing. Is there a response to that?