Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 April 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Health Service Capacity Review: PA Consulting

9:00 am

Mr. Tim Daly:

I will comment on the GP practice. I agree there is much more work to be done on integration in the NHS. On Deputy O'Connell's earlier points, there is something about the definition of primary care that in itself is not always helpful. There is stuff that needs to be done at home by home care packages and by clinicians. There is also stuff that needs to be done out of hospital. There is a question as to whether that is done in a GP practice or whether that practice is part of a health centre or whether it is done by practice nurses, pharmacists or a whole range of professionals. The NHS is looking at how one might disaggregate and define that care which is between what one historically would have thought of as default GP care and the referral to a consultant in a hospital. That is a real broad band of work. I agree many health systems are grappling with that same problem.