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You are > Home > HSE fails to deliver primary care team
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Thursday, March 04, 2010
HSE fails to deliver primary care team
NO HSE PRIMARY care teams are fully operational in Wexford although the HSE has committed to establishing 17 by 2011.
The 2001 national primarycare strategy promised 600 primary care teams, including 17 in Co. Wexford, would be established by 2011.
A HSE spokesman this week told the Echo that seven primary care teams – three in Gorey, two in New Ross and one each in Ballycullane and Taghmon – are “at an early stage of development”.
However, according to the HSE’s 2010 service plans, these teams have been in operation since December 31 last.
Meanwhile, the four primary-care teams required for Wexford town, which has the county’s largest population density, have yet to be progressed.
None of the three primarycare teams planned for Enniscorthy have yet materialised while the primary-care teams for Bunclody, Ferns and Rosslare are also only at planning stage.
“A number of encouraging proposals have been progressed in the county. Contracts have been agreed for the leasing of two premises, both in Gorey, to accommodate the expanded PrimaryCare Teams consisting of GPs and HSE staff. “It is anticipated that both premises will be ready for occupation by mid-April 2010,” said the spokesman.
The 2001 report, which promised 600 primary care teams by 2011, said it was setting out a “new direction for primary care as the central focus of the delivery of health and personal services in Ireland and promoting a team-based approach to service provision which will help to build capacity in primary care and contribute to sustainable health and social development”.
Primary Care services aim to support and promote the health and wellbeing of the population by providing locally based accessible services and teams usually consist of GPs, nurses / midwives, home helps, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and administrative personnel.
The purpose is to ensure that health services are available in the community and patients are no longer fed into one big clinic, for example the HSE centre in Grogan’s Rd., to access services. In Wexford, the HSE spokesman said, the project will be completed on a “phased basis”.
“Additional staff have been recruited and current HSE staff are being reorganised to align with the primary care team model. Core Team members consist of GPs, nursing staff, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and home helps.
“A wider network of professional staff will support a number of primary care teams, including speech and language therapists, dieticians, social workers and psychologists,” he said.
The HSE confirmed to the Echo that the development of primary care services is a priority for the HSE locally and said it will be a particular focus in 2010.
This sentiment was echoed in the HSE’s 2010 service plan, which envisages a seven percent reduction in hospital admissions, and a four percent increase in day cases, this year.
Despite this commitment to the establishment of primary care teams, a recent Oireachtas Health Committee’s report found only 222 primary care teams had been established around the country at the end of 2009.
The report says primary care centres – which are one-stop-shops in the community where patients can access GPs and a whole range of other health professionals under one roof – are essential if the primary care teams now being put in place are to operate at an optimal level.
The committee’s Report on Primary Medical Care in the Community lists a range of possible incentives such as tax reliefs, stamp duty reliefs, and rates reliefs which might be considered to expedite the provision of primary care centres, but says these should be targeted at professionals in primary care teams rather than developers The HSE has now revised down the number of primary care teams required, from 600 to 542, and says it is on track to deliver all of them by the end of 2011.
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