John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support the Bill and the measures contained within it. What concerns me about the development of primary care facilities and services and using the pharmacies is that, right now, they are overcome with the number of patients they have. The pharmacies are also overcome with the amount of prescriptions with which they are dealing and the amount of customers, if you like, that they have. Far greater investment is needed for both the primary care element of the Bill and for the pharmacies. We cannot put stuff into a Bill and then not match it with the amount of money that is required to make it happen. For example, all of the new faces we now have in this country, the new people who are coming in, must have access to GPs and pharmacies. We are told there is a package there so that the asylum seekers and refugees housed in different localities will have support measures in place for them, but I have not seen that. I have not seen anything extra. In fact, in my clinics, I have dealt with more people looking to gain access to a GP than I have ever seen before. They cannot get their names listed at a GP practice. That must be addressed if we are going to continue to ask those GPs to deal with the extra numbers.

If you ring a GP now, you are put on to various numbers to wait for different people. That is very frustrating for elderly people, in particular, who want, and were used to, direct access to a GP. Nurses and support staff are needed within a GP service but they are not there. GP practices are finding it extremely difficult to get replacement GPs or to get those who they need to support the services they are delivering. We need to invest more in primary care.

I again emphasise to the Minister that I have seen many pharmacists being put to the pins of the collars to deliver the extra services they provide. I appeal to the Minister to look at those on the front line, including GPs and pharmacists, and ensure there is an appropriate level of investment to allow them to develop the services, develop their own skills and talents, and serve the local communities that all of us serve. Those on the front line are under dire pressure. We have an ageing population and will have to respond with far greater speed to those people. I ask the Minister, as others in the House have asked, to please look at the medical card process for those who obviously need a card, including the cancer patients who were mentioned. The Minister can start there and work down. We really need reform to the bureaucracy of the health services, how they are delivered, the technology used and the route for patients to getting the care they need.

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