Wider role for primary care planned

The management of chronic illness is to be transferred from hospitals to the primary care, under a new initiative announced by Minister for Health James Reilly.

Speaking at the annual conference of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) in Killarney last night, he said in the next few months between 15 and 20 primary care centres would be chosen to act as “demonstrator models” for a new approach to the treatment of chronically ill patients in the community.

“GPs and other allied healthcare professionals who are involved in these demonstrator models, will be given a much bigger role in the management of their chronically ill patients.

“This initiative, which will require the transfer of resources from hospitals to primary care, will be rolled out in the second half of this year and will be fully up and running in 2013.”

“It is our intention to widen this initiative to more centres and involving more conditions in subsequent years.”

Dr Reilly said that 95 per cent of illnesses could be looked after in primary care and that was where it should be centred.

He said historically larger institutions such as hospitals were magnets for all the funding. He said he wanted “to change all that”.

“We are going to put the resources into primary care to allow them to deliver.”

However, he said primary care had to deliver value for money in how it dealt with services transferred from the hospital setting.

“It is not a case that it is costing €3 million in the hospitals then we are giving €3 million to primary care.

“Not at all. We want to see value for money. Primary care is able to do it more cost effectively, GPs are up for this.

“We have heard it said GPs are well up for this. We are going to afford them the opportunity.” Dr Reilly said the initiative formed part of a wider programme of reform in the area of chronic disease.

He said a new nationwide programme for diabetes care would be rolled out in 2012 and further programmes for cardiac, respiratory and neurological conditions would follow in 2013/14.

He said the goal was to improve quality and outcomes while allowing greater self-management by patients of their own conditions.

Dr Reilly also strongly defended the pace of his reform plans in the health service, which had been strongly criticised by the IMO at its conference.

The Minister, who is a former president of the doctors’ trade union, said the Government was “right on track” with its reforms in the health service.

“The abolition of the HSE is on line, the legislation is going to Government, the universal health insurance implementation group is up and running and we have introduced money follows the patient on a pilot basis last year and we will spread it this year.

“Obviously people are in a hurry, they want to see change happened very quickly but the more realistic understand that health is like a large tanker out at sea. Health is a huge thing to change and you can’t change overnight.”