Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Swanick for raising this issue. I know his experience as a GP in addition to being in the House is a motivating factor.

Enhancing and expanding capacity in the primary care sector is crucial to ensuring delivery of a preventive, joined-up approach to the management of the nation's health and the modernisation of primary care delivery. In a fully developed primary care system, 90% to 95% of people's day-to-day health and social care needs can be met in the primary care setting.

The development of primary care centres to accommodate primary care teams and, where possible, GPs in the one location is a key enabler for the delivery of primary care services. Primary care centres facilitate the shift from acute care towards primary care because of the range of multi-disciplinary services they can provide and the role they can play in keeping people who do not need to be in an acute setting out of hospital.

Significant investment has been made in the development of primary care centres and continues to be put in place. These additional primary care facilities across the country will be provided through a combination of direct build, through public private partnership and by way of the Health Service Executive’s primary care operational lease mechanism. Boyle primary care centre is one of the 14 facilities being developed under the public private partnership model and is expected to open in the third quarter of 2017.

The Health Service Executive has advised that the Elphin health centre provides a range of services to the local community delivered by two GPs, one public health nurse and one visiting speech and language therapist while the Strokestown health centre provides the service of one GP. The HSE has advised that no decision has been made to close any health centres located in close proximity to the development of new primary care centres. This is the position for Elphin and Strokestown health centres. Once newly opened primary care centres become operational, the services being provided from existing health centres will be reviewed in the context of whether these services would be more appropriately delivered from a primary care centre. A decision will then be made on the future of some health centres, with the HSE advising that many of the health centres will remain where GPs are in situand not relocate to a primary care centre.

It is very important to stress that from the point of view of people using the wide range of services provided by the HSE at community level, the objective is to ensure services are responsive to people’s needs and enable them to receive a joined-up service that results in the most favourable health outcomes for patients. These primary centres will, when completed, significantly enhance and expand capacity in the primary care sector to deliver on this. This is very much in line with the policy of Government that people access the great majority of their health care needs in the community and, as far as possible, in one location.