Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

514. To ask the Minister for Health if he will address the issue of securing general practitioners for provincial town practices in which a client bank of 800 medical cards is not deemed to be economically feasible or attractive enough, resulting in no applications being received for a position which has become vacant due to a general practitioner retirement in Thurles, County Tipperary (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36941/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Government is committed to ensuring that patients throughout the country continue to have access to GP services, especially in remote rural areas and also in certain disadvantaged urban areas, and that general practice is sustainable in such areas into the future. The Programme for Partnership Government emphasises the need to focus on enhancing primary healthcare services, including building up GP capacity and increasing the number of therapists and other health professionals in primary care. The annual GP training intake has increased from 120 places prior to 2010 to 172 places as of July this year and I am anxious to achieve further increases in future years.

I am cognisant of the need for a new GP services contract which will help modernise our health service and develop a strengthened primary care sector, and health service management have already progressed a number of significant measures through engagement with GP representatives. The GP contracts review process will, inter alia, seek to introduce further measures aimed at making general practice a fulfilling and rewarding career option into the future. Progress to date includes changes to the entry provisions to the GMS scheme to accommodate flexible/shared GMS/GP contracts, and to the retirement provisions for GPs under the GMS scheme, allowing GPs to hold GMS contracts until their 72nd birthday, as well as the introduction of an enhanced supports package for rural GP practices.

As the Deputy's question relates to service matters, I have arranged for the question to be referred to the Health Service Executive (HSE) for direct reply to the Deputy.