Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister talks about wanting to make general practice an attractive option for GPs. It would be marvellous if it were an attractive option for practice nurses as well. A total of €81.6 million is spent on staffing, and a further several million - more than €21.5 million, I think - is spent on fee per procedure or fee per item. Does the Minister not think it would make more sense if the HSE directly employed those practice nurses and, to the extent possible, did away with the fee per item? I recall when other health professionals were being paid on a fee-per-item basis that there was much handwringing from Fianna Fáil, which I believe was in Government at the time, because the fee per item was not deemed to be good value for the public purse. This is an area where fee per item is rampant. Will the Minister give some consideration to the direct employment of these practice nurses?

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