Dr. John Farrell:

The Deputy made the point about comparison between Ireland and the UK and that in the NHS people were waiting for up to 14 days to see their GP. Unless it is for acute problems, which GPs will always manage and for which they provide a same-day service, the reality unfortunately is that for a lot of practices there is a waiting time of a couple of days to see a GP. It is down to capacity issues. The committee should also know that there is an increasing complexity of care in general practice. The days of very quick consultations are gone. With an ageing population, complex medical issues and multimorbidity, consultations are taking longer. With the advent of the chronic disease management programme, we are able to address some of those in a structured way, which is great. It goes back to the fact that there are capacity issues. If someone is acutely unwell, that person will certainly be seen and provided with a same-day service.

My practice moved into a primary care centre two years ago and it has provided us with ready access to ancillary services, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and our public health nursing colleagues. It is great and is one of the models of care but, going back to what Dr. Ní Dhálaigh and others said, it raises the questions of who owns the buildings, who pays the rent and who looks after the cost involved in providing the infrastructure. That is something we believe needs to be looked at also.