Dr. Maev-Ann Wren:

Yes. We will send the committee the data we have on Healthy Ireland visiting rates. It is a survey that was established and administered by the Department of Health. In terms of projecting the number of GPs that would be needed with universal coverage in primary care, we have done two separate exercises. We looked at the potential for increased visiting as a result of universal access to primary care and universal health insurance. Our finding was that visiting by people who did not previously hold a medical card or GP visit card would in aggregate increase by about 49%. That translated into an 18% increase in visiting as a whole across the entire population. If the same proportion of care was delivered by GPs on the same model of care, we could translate that into a pro ratafigure of an 18% increase. In addition, we have projected the effects of population growth and ageing. Clearly there is a substantial demand coming down the track. In the work we have done, we have looked at ways in which that could be met and the cost could be reduced by changing the skill mix between general practitioners and practice nurses.