Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. We are doing several things. We have to first recognise there is a serious issue. I know the groups met with the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and the figures it gave them were very stark in respect of future shortages. Let us all agree this is a major issue that needs to be dealt with. What do we do? We need a very significant increase in training places. As the Deputy referenced in her question, we are setting up a working group on the future of general practice. Under the 2019 agreement, that should have happened either in 2019 or 2020.

I do not want to pre-empt what that working group will come up with. I have various views. A serious gender analysis is required. Certainly, the conversations I have had with GPs suggest the system simply does not work structurally for many women. There are very serious issues with access, especially GMS access. It is more serious in lower income areas where it is a real problem so we need to look at how a future GMS contract interacts with the future of general practice. We moved training to the ICGP. That happened last year and was a very positive move. We are funding roles through the ICGP, for example, the role of women's healthcare in general practice. There is a dedicated resource looking at that issue.

An issue the Deputy has raised many times, where there has not been sufficient progress, is eHealth in the community. Some good things happened during the pandemic, but much more is required in terms of remote monitoring of patients, including practice nurses, GPs, remote sensors and home care workers being able to bring their patients in through the chronic disease management programme.

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