Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. Like him, I recognise that there are challenges facing general practice in terms of capacity, including out-of-hours services, and importantly therefore for the people who matter in all of this, which is their patients and the communities they serve. Historically, out-of-hours services have been something that GPs have provided. We know that more and more GPs are now opting out of that provision and are looking to the State to provide it, for reasonable reasons relating to work-life balance and so forth, but it does create a very significant additional task for the State to provide services where in the past GPs might have provided it.

I would love to hear more balance, not from the Oireachtas on this but from the representative bodies. The GPs and their representative groups quite rightly demand new capacity and we are providing that. I would like to hear more, perhaps debates like this help, about the capacity that has already been added. For example, since 2019, three years ago, baseline funding for general practice has increased by more than €211 million, approximately 40%. As Deputy Cullinane will be aware, the budget for next year will provide significant additional funding for general practice in terms of extra capacity. I want to see a big expansion in the roles of practice nurses. There is much more we can do in terms of patients being supported and seen directly by practice nurses and in administrative supports and IT supports.

The roll-out of enhanced community care and direct access to diagnostics has been very well received by GPs this year. We estimate approximately 200,000 scans will have been referred directly by GPs themselves. We provided funding of €25 million last year, €35 million this year and €45 million for next year. I will continue with the responses.

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