Mr. Paul Gordon:

To return to Deputy Michael Harty's point about communication with acute care services, we commissioned a report which the Irish College of General Practitioners, ICGP, undertook for us earlier this year to survey GPs on the issue of access to diagnostics. We found that one problem was communication after a diagnosis. Approximately 30% of doctors said there was very little communication with consultants afterwards. That is problematic in managing chronic illnesses. As a general practitioner, the Deputy knows that there are certain low level solutions to certain problems. There is a large health literacy problem among the population. GPs and consultants tend to underestimate the level of people's health literacy. Approximately 40% of the population encounter such difficulties.

Another issue in the system concerns access to GPs. There is not only an issue with access to diagnostics. In Deputy Róisín Shortall's constituency, for example, there might be pockets where there would be only one GP for every 2,500 people, whereas in Dún Laoghaire where I live there might be one GP for every 1,600 people. There is a need to provide a certain incentive for GPs to move into deprived areas because not only are there fewer GPs in them but also people living in the most deprived areas present with more comorbities. There are more complex cases and because of the pressure exerted on GPs in these areas, they get to spend less time with patients who need more time.