Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I stated, I will reflect on the Deputy's comments and the views of the Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Health Care because getting this right is very important in terms of the development of primary care. I had the opportunity to address the annual conference of practice nurses recently and I heard from them some concerns about anomalies. They felt colleagues in most other settings across the health service have the possibility of engaging in educational opportunities, which they do not, and I have committed to engaging with practice nurses further on that. It is an important issue. My Department will also publish shortly policy proposals on the further development of the role of the public health nurse and engage with stakeholders and consulting in regard to that as well. Getting primary care right is absolutely about a new GP contract but it also involves a range of other health care professionals. We are at an early stage of the contract renegotiation and the Health Service Executive and the Department of Health have had initial engagement on the broad range of issues with two representative bodies of GPs. It is a very substantive body of work and I expect the negotiations to take the bulk of 2017.

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