Colm Burke (Fine Gael)
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I thank the witnesses very much for their presentations and the work they are doing. I am quite concerned about the time it is taking to complete the contract negotiations. From my experience and previously when the Department was dealing with contract negotiations in other areas of health care, they took a number of years. If the witnesses wanted to fast-track a particular aspect of the contract negotiations which could be implemented, what would they identify? The witnesses said it would have to be worked on gradually. Could an agreement be reached at this stage with an element of the contract that could be implemented immediately that would assist GPs with further development?

Last night I downloaded the contract produced in Scotland. It is called the 2008 general medical services contract. I understand the expectation is that there will be a shortage of 1,000 GPs in Scotland unless they get their act together there. Have the witnesses looked at the proposal and are there any aspects of it that we could adopt here to fast-track a better contract for GPs here? One of the issues raised in this document is that GPs should have a minimum income of £80,450 sterling. Have we looked at that and can we use part of the contract? We will be competing with Scotland if it has a more attractive contract than the Irish one. We are competing on a world market for GPs. Therefore, we must be conscious of what others are offering.

The third issue I wish to raise relates to the system in England. I was in Plymouth recently looking at medical services there. We were in one practice where the big boast was the fact that they had reduced the waiting times to see patients from 15 days to eight days. We found another practice where all the GPs had handed back their contracts and walked out the door and left a practice of 20,000 patients. I hope that will never happen here in Ireland. What do we need to do to make sure that we fast-track elements of the contract negotiations to put them in place? Otherwise, we are going to face the same problem with shortages. We already have a shortage of staff in certain areas.

My understanding is that in Cork and Kerry they have introduced electronic communication for maternity services. I believe there was a problem with that in relation to communication with GPs. Have the teething problems with electronic communication in maternity services been resolved in order that the system can be fast-tracked around the country? Are GPs able to work with the HSE on this issue to fast-track the system for the entire country? It is important that work proceeds in that regard.

I sent a question to the Minister yesterday on electronic communications with patients. A number of companies are offering to set up electronic communications systems for medical practitioners. Such a system will have to be incorporated at this stage rather than looking at it in ten or 15 years. We are already behind a country such as Denmark where electronic communication has been used very effectively. How can we fast-track the system as part of the contract negotiations? The most important question is what element of the contract we could sign off on in the morning without having to wait for the entire process to be progressed.