Written answers
Thursday, 21 June 2018
Department of Health
Primary Care Services Provision
Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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182. To ask the Minister for Health the status of the €40 million allocated to primary care as outlined in budget 2018; the amount that has been spent; the way in which the money has been spent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27234/18]
Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The additional funding for primary care development announced by the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform in Budget 2018 is detailed in the table. The Deputy may wish to note that the allocation for new primary care developments was finalised at €39m under the HSE National Service Plan for 2018.
| - | Allocation (€m) | Drawn Down at end Q1 (€m) |
|---|---|---|
| New Primary Care Centre Lease and Operating Costs | 10.2 | 9.68 |
| Community Intervention Team expansion and OPAT provision from Q3 2018 | 2.8 | 0 |
| 60 Additional Paediatric Home Care Packages | 2.1 | 2.1 |
| Occupational Therapy Posts (40 OTs to be recruited from Q3 2018) | 1.043 | 0 |
| Nursing Development Initiatives | 3 | 0 |
| GP Initiatives | 2.357 | 0 |
| GP Out of Hours expansion (Dublin South, South-East and North Wicklow) | 2 | 0 |
| GP Training (additional places to bring total to 198) | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| TOTAL | 25 | 13.28 |
As can be seen from the table, some of the measures are being supported to cover full-year costs while in other instances funding is intended to cover costs arising in the latter part of 2018. In those instances where monies have not yet been drawn down, it is expected that this funding will be utilised in the second half of the year. However, savings have been identified under the heading of Nursing Development Initiatives, and sanction has been given to reallocate €1m to support the further rollout of the Taskforce for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix in General and Specialist Medical and Surgical Care Settings.
In addition to the measures outlined above, a further €14m was provided for the funding of new drugs under the Primary Care Reimbursement Scheme.To date in 2018, the HSE has given approval for the reimbursement of a number of new medicines with cost implications for the current year of approximately €11 million.
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