Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Question 51: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the action he will take to recover funds which have been allocated to support primary care teams; and the number of primary care teams that are currently in operation. [13417/11]

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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The development of Primary Care Teams and Primary Care Centres is a priority under the Programme for Government. The aim is to provide up to 95% of health and social care in local communities. This will be achieved by increasing activity in the primary care setting and redirecting services away from acute hospitals to the community. The Health Service Executive has reported that 366 Primary Care Teams were operating by the end of March 2011 and providing services for over 2.9 million people. The HSE's definition of an operating Team is one which is holding clinical team meetings on individual client cases, where GPs and HSE staff are involved.

These Primary Care Teams are at different stages of development with significant variations in the number of clinical team meetings held, the number of patients discussed and the number of Patient Care Plans agreed. It is a key priority for this Government that all Teams are fully functional. I have met with the HSE on a number of occasions in recent weeks and have asked HSE officials to make significant progress on this issue over the next 12 months. As a first step, the HSE has been asked to identify precisely how many Teams are currently fully operational.