Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will ask the Minister for Health to communicate directly with the Deputy on this situation in Donegal around patients who have diabetes. The Minister will be able to give a detailed reply on the particular local issues in Donegal and Sligo for those cases highlighted by Deputy Pringle today.

The goal is to provide high quality service to patients, such as those the Deputy has described, in their own homes or with local services and local GPs where possible, as opposed to having to travel farther to get those services. The Government has made a commitment to ensure those services are available and this is reflected in the highest health budget that has ever been agreed, at €14.6 billion. This demonstrates the Government's commitment to ensure patients, such as those described by Deputy Pringle, will have those services available to them.

There are issues around recruitment. The Deputy highlighted the subject of the nurses in the area and every effort is being made to recruit more nurses. The initiatives being undertaken by the Minister, such as the bed capacity review which is under way, the increased budget, the new GP contract and the recruitment campaign, are to make sure we have the kind of local health services that are needed. We also have the all-party committee working on the ten-year plan for the health services and this is due to be received in April this year. Additional funding of €18.5 million has been given to primary care centres, including enabling the support of various paediatric cases and the type of situation specialist intervention that is needed for diabetes. Clearly, every effort has been made to make sure services are available locally for specialist conditions such as diabetes. The new GP contract will ensure there is an even more flexible service available to people in local areas and given by GPs.

I will ask the Minister for Health to liaise directly with the Deputy on the situation in Donegal, but with regard to the overall approach to development and making sure people have the very best health services, I have outlined to the Deputy the various initiatives the Minister is taking to arrive at that situation. There is ever-increasing demand on our health services, as the Deputy knows, but equally there has been an ever-increasing budget to meet that demand.

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