The Government is set to use a large part of a 10 per cent increase in healthcare funding next year on primary care and services for the elderly.
Sources said last night that the Government spending estimates, to be released on Thursday, will provide for an extra €1 billion or thereabouts for the health sector. It is likely some of this additional money will be directed towards primary care.
The primary care strategy, published in 2001, called for GPs and other healthcare professionals to be brought together in hundreds of primary care teams across the country. The cost of this was estimated at about €1 billion but to date very little funding has been provided.
Only a handful of pilot primary care projects have been set up. In recent years the Department of Health's main capital funding priorities have been the development of the hospital sector.
It is also expected that some of the increased funding will go towards providing new services for older people, which Minister for Health Mary Harney has set as a major priority for next year.
However, there was speculation last night that Thursday's figures will indicate that the Government is seeking to increase some healthcare charges such as those for private beds in public hospitals.
The Government is committed to moving incrementally towards charging the full economic cost of private facilities in public hospitals. Any increase in these charges will likely be passed on by private health insurance companies to subscribers in higher premiums next year.
The planned increase in Government healthcare funding for next year will bring the total public sector health budget to more than €12 billion.
In a separate development the Government has also agreed to provide €400 million in the year ahead to begin the repayment of money illegally taken from patients in long-stay institutions.
About 60,000 patients and their estates are believed to be eligible for repayments. This is expected to cost about €1 billion in total. The repayment scheme is expected to run for two years and significant funding will also be provided in the 2007 estimates.
The new initiative for older people, which is likely to be formally announced in December's Budget, will seek to facilitate care in the home as much as possible. The initiative is likely to involve the provision of additional homecare packages. It is also expected that there will be moves towards greater access to State subsidies for nursing home care.
The Irish Times revealed in September that, as part of this initiative, the Government was examining the issue of stamp duty and whether it was a disincentive for elderly people moving to more suitable accommodation.
Meanwhile, in a pre-Budget submission yesterday the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) called on the Government to provide an additional 500 acute hospital beds and to introduce medical cards for all children. It also urged that 500 additional continuing care beds be brought on stream next year.
INO general secretary Liam Doran said: "The Irish health service continues to be too small and unable to deal with the demands being placed upon it. The INO continues to support the previously identified requirements for 15,000 acute beds and we cannot concur with the views of HSE chief executive, Prof Brendan Drumm, that additional beds are not required."
