Little progress in developing primary care teams, GPs told

THERE HAS been little progress in the development of primary care teams across the State since last November, the chief executive of the Irish College of General Practitioners has said.

Speaking to the media at the college’s annual meeting in Galway on Saturday, Kieran Ryan said about one-third of primary care teams, which are central to Government plans to shift patient care from hospitals to the community, were working effectively.

A further one-third were functioning partly, while another one-third existed in name only.

Primary care centres are one-stop-shops in the community with such services as GP, nurse, physiotherapist, chiropodist and psychotherapist. The 2001 primary care strategy envisaged an infrastructure of centres to deliver the vast majority of a person’s healthcare in their local community and away from acute hospitals.

Dr Philip Crowley, the national director of quality and patient safety at the Health Service Executive, said there was a renewed commitment by the HSE to the 2001 primary care strategy and to primary care teams.

He said among the challenges facing the health service were rising rates of chronic disease and more patients with multiple morbidities. The specific challenges in delivering quality care in general practice included the continued isolation of some GPs, out-of-hours cover and the management of patient information, especially when transitions of care took place.

Meanwhile the chairman of the council, Dr John Delap, said it was concerned about problems surrounding the accessibility of essential medicines for patients. Referring to people with thyroid disease who have difficulties sourcing supplies of the replacement thyroid hormone, he said it was critical that people have access to essential medicines such as thyroxine.