Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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55. To ask the Minister for Health the reason there is no commitment on delivering an extended range of general practitioner services in the new programme for Government; and how he will develop the delivery of key health services at general practitioner and primary care level, including direct access for general practitioners to ultrasound and X-ray services, enhanced minor surgery services, and community-based clinical programmes, targeting the most prevalent chronic diseases. [13740/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for Partnership Government emphasises the priority of increasing access to safe, timely care, as close to patients' homes as possible, and it recognises that general practice needs a new contract to address its changing role in delivering chronic care with the community and to allow it play its part in addressing the challenges that face the health system. Under a Framework Agreement, signed in 2014, the HSE, the Department of Health, and Irish Medical Organisation are currently engaged in a comprehensive review of the General Medical Services (GMS) and other publicly funded health sector contracts involving GPs. A priority of these discussions will be the inclusion of chronic disease management for patients.

Funding of €13.5 million from the 2016 HSE Primary Care budget was held within the Department of Health for GP contract developments, which includes rural practices, access to diagnostics and minor surgery, and extending GP care without fees to all children aged between 6 years and 11 years. It is expected that the full €13.5 million in hold-back funding will be fully utilised during 2016 in accordance with the HSE 2016 National Service Plan.

The HSE has recently developed a pilot service whereby a GP can refer adult medical card and GP visit card holders for ultrasound scans. Patients deemed to be urgent are seen within 5 working days and routine patients are seen within 10 working days. The service is currently available in 10 primary care centres and the plan is to improve GP access to ultrasound in other areas of the country throughout 2016 - 2017.

In addition, the HSE in collaboration with the Irish College of General Practitioners is completing a pilot research project involving 23 GPs in 20 practices who are delivering a range of minor surgery procedures in general practice. Subject to analysis of the results, the pilot will be extended to a further 40 GP practices. This will allow in the region of 10,000 procedures on hospital waiting lists to be fast-tracked in General Practice.

The HSE's 2016 Operational Plan sets out a number of the 2016 planned initiatives on chronic disease management in primary care, including:

- improve integrated pathways across all Community Healthcare Organisations (CHOs) in collaboration with the Integrated Programme for Prevention and Management of Chronic Disease for patients with COPD, Asthma, Ischaemic Heart Disease and Diabetes;

- provide structured education programmes for patients with Diabetes;

- implement the Integrated Model of Care for Prevention and Management of Chronic Disease in identified areas and implementing the Chronic Disease Demonstrator Projects; and

- develop and recruit new clinical roles and structures to support integrated care implementation in CHOs.