Doctors will today decide whether to enter into formal negotiations with the Voluntary Health Insurance Board on a first-ever primary care scheme.
In what is expected to be a divisive debate on ceding control of private general practice to the VHI, strong resistance is likely.
The chief executive of the Irish Medical Organisation, Mr George McNeice, referred to the difficult relations between general practitioners and the VHI when he addressed the organisation's annual conference yesterday. "Let there be no doubt as to the extent of the bitterness and distrust felt by GPs as a result," he said.
This is a reference to the unilateral cutting of fees for minor surgical procedures by the VHI in the past and to the historic neglect of general practice by the State's largest health insurer.
Addressing the conference, the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, referred to the challenges facing both general practitioners and the Department in improving the infrastructure of primary health care.
"We still have a great many single-handed practices, operating in some instances from physical structures unsuitable for practice development. They simply cannot provide the diversity of services required by strategies like our cardiovascular strategy," he told delegates.
A scientific session on this strategy was told by Dr Jane Wilde, director of the all-Ireland Institute of Public Health, of the need to challenge and end inequity in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. She referred to a recent health feature in The Irish Times as proof of the existence of inequality within the health services.
The broadcaster Dr John Bowman spoke of practical methods by which the situation might be reversed whereby a 65-year-old in Ireland has the lowest life expectancy of any European citizen. Starting with children, he emphasised the importance of teaching them the "plumbing" of the cardiovascular system as a method of preparing the ground for prevention.
He said the enormity of the task ahead was akin to "trying to turn an ocean liner around".