Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If the 50% rate mentioned by the Tánaiste is in line with the Government's aspiration, it is a very poor effort. The provision of universal access to GPs for everybody is a stated policy in the programme for Government that was formulated in March 2011, which said that everybody in the country would have access to GP care free of charge. We were told there would be universality across the board. We are now over four years in and we have a situation where just half of GPs have signed up to the first effort to roll out this strategy. This means that large tranches of the population will be discommoded. These people will not have access to their family GPs. The Government had four years to negotiate this. We are now at the 11th hour and families are unsure of what services will be available to them in the coming weeks when they try to access their family doctors.

The broader issue is that it is simply not good enough to apologise to the 102 year old who had to lie on a trolley for 24 hours. Apologies will not change the policies being pursued by the Government. The under-resourcing of primary care, which is under huge pressure, is driving people into hospitals. GPs are referring people to hospitals because they cannot cope with chronic illness and disease. Even though the Government has a stated policy of keeping people out of hospitals, everything it is doing is facilitating the reverse. I hate to inform the Tánaiste that her constituency colleague, the Minister for Health, was doing his usual grand tour of radio stations this morning and waxing lyrical while making observations about health. He seems to forget he is the person who is ultimately in charge and responsible for the health service.

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