Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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520. To ask the Minister for Health the cost of expanding the Structured Chronic Disease Management Programme to two more conditions. [45913/24]

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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521. To ask the Minister for Health the cost of making the current Structured Chronic Disease Management Programme universal. [45914/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 520 and 521 together.

Under the GMS scheme, the HSE contracts GPs to provide medical services without charge to medical card and GP visit card holders. The General Practitioner (GP) Chronic Disease Management (CDM) Programme commenced in 2020 and has been rolled out on a phased basis to adult GMS (Medical Card and GP Visit Card) patients over a 4-year period.

Under the Opportunistic case finding programme, cases are identified on an opportunistic basis i.e. when a patient attends for another issue, risk criteria are applied and appropriate tests/assessments carried out to identify those with chronic disease or those at high risk of chronic disease. The Opportunistic Case Finding Programme identifies those at high risk of cardiovascular disease or diabetes for entry to the CDM Prevention Programme and those with previously undiagnosed chronic disease(s) are enrolled in the CDM Treatment Programme.

The CDM programme is an entirely new healthcare service in Ireland that has brought the care for chronic disease further into the community and it aims to reduce hospital attendance.

Further expansion of the programme, to include additional conditions or to include non-GMS patients, would require rigorous clinical assessment and engagement with stakeholders, including the GPs delivering the service.

The additional cost of an expansion of the CDM Programme would depend on the outcome of the relevant clinical assessment and engagement with stakeholders.