Mr. Fergal Goodman:

The involvement of GPs has been referred to strongly. They are a core member of the team, as they were in the 2001 strategy. That being so, at the same time, there were always some GPs, as HSE colleagues have indicated, who were enthusiastic early adopters, but we had no contractual arrangement with the GPs that bound them more closely into the primary care team and network model. In negotiations that we had this year with the Irish Medical Organisation, one of the key objectives that was secured was a contractual obligation on behalf of general practice to work in an integrated way with primary care networks and teams. It is not about the physical co-location. That, as people have explained, is dependent on many other circumstances. The primary care strategy was very much about ways of working, teamwork and multidisciplinary care. GPs are moving closer into collaboration with the salaried staff of the HSE in delivering services to populations. It is worth noting that as part of the service delivery objective.