Sir, – For a primary care lifer like myself it is heartening to have the political system engaged in this area of healthcare. Progress in primary healthcare has been slow despite the rhetoric and compelling economic and healthcare cases for its development.
There is no shortage of interest in primary care development and in the building of such centres, especially in the private sector. The current model of primary care requires the involvement of GPs based on the everyday evidence of walking in to any multidisciplinary health centre, where the only queues are likely to be outside the GP doors.
The vital step that is limiting primary care development is access to funding. Now that everyone is conversant with the criteria for primary care development we need to think realistically and plan the funding of 100 fully functioning primary care centres and teams, across the country, over the next five years to create critical mass. The dealbreaker has to be the involvement of the local GPs. To make it happen we need business planning, whether private or public, and access to financial funds in banks here and abroad. Most importantly we need access to the liquidation of any future State assets. Dr Noël Browne liquidated the assets of the Irish Sweepstakes to build our sanitoriums. Now is the time to sell its modern day equivalent, the Lotto, to create a fund to build primary care centres. – Yours, etc,