Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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151. To ask the Minister for Health the capacity in primary care in whole-time equivalent terms for the positions outlined on page 9 of the Executive Report of the Health Service Capacity Review 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16960/19]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Health Service Capacity Review, published in 2018, examined the capacity needs of the health sector in order to inform future planning decisions. The report provides capacity forecasts for two alternative scenarios; a baseline “status quo” scenario which assumes no major change in the way health services are delivered, and a reform scenario which considers the impact of a range of potential reforms including health and wellbeing initiatives, a fundamental change in the model of care, and productivity improvements. The report projected that demand for primary care health services would grow in the future and, under both scenarios outlined above, it forecasted a projected increase in the primary care workforce capacity to deal with increased service demand.

The recently published Sláintecare Action Plan 2019 includes actions on workforce planning and capacity building in the health sector to deliver the clinical and services objectives of the Sláintecare reform. This includes workforce planning to ensure that the new models of care are properly planned in order to deliver integrated care.

In relation to the current WTE primary care workforce, I have asked the HSE to provided the data directly to the Deputy.