David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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806. To ask the Minister for Health his plans for the public provision of general practice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36859/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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General Practitioners are self-employed private practitioners, most of whom have contracts with the HSE to provide services under various public health schemes. There are no plans at present to directly employ general practitioners. The 2019 GP Agreement includes a commitment to undertake a strategic review of GP services within the lifetime of the Agreement, to examine how best to ensure the provision of GP services in Ireland for the future.  The outcome of this review will inform future contractual changes, with preparatory work for the review having begun this year.

As reflected in the Programme for Government, the Government is committed to increasing access to GP services on a public basis, by extending GP care without charges to more children; an important healthcare measure that will remove a potentially prohibitive cost barrier to accessing GP care and will help to improve children’s health as they develop. Ensuring more children have access to GP care without charge is a further step towards the Sláintecare Report recommendation for universal access to GP care, which recognises the need for expansion on phased basis.

The Health (General Practitioner Service and Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Act 2020 provides, amongst other things, for the phased expansion of GP care without fees to all children aged 12 years and under. The initial stage of this phased expansion will be the provision of GP care without fees to all children aged between 6 and 8. However, the appropriate date for commencing the expansion remains under consideration in light of COVID-19 and the additional pressures the expansion might place on general practice in that context and in anticipation of the usual increase in demand for healthcare services over the winter period.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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807. To ask the Minister for Health his plans for increasing the number of general practitioners in the health system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36860/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Government is aware of the workforce issues currently facing general practice and has implemented a number of measures to improve recruitment and retention in this area.

These include changes to the entry provisions to the GMS scheme to accommodate more 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. Enhanced supports for rural GP practices have also been introduced. 

The 2019 Agreement on GP contractual reforms will see the Government increase investment in general practice by approximately 40% (€210 million) between 2019 and 2023, providing for significant increases in capitation fees for GPs who participate in the reform programme and the introduction of new fees and subsidies for additional services such as the chronic disease programme. There will also be increased support for GPs working in disadvantaged urban areas, and improvements have been made to maternity and paternity leave arrangements.

The number of GPs entering training has been increased steadily over the previous years, rising from 120 in 2009 to 214 in 2020, with a further increase foreseen in 2021.The planned transfer of responsibility for training GPs from the HSE to the Irish College of General Practitioners, pending the resolution of certain outstanding issues, will allow for further increases in the number of training places in future years. 

These measures will see an increase in the number of GPs working in the State, improving access to GP services for patients throughout the country.