The Development and networking of Irish Primary Care Medical Services

1. Future Plans for
Primary Care
John Hennessy,
National Director, Primary Care
13th November 2013

2. Introduction
 24th
July 2013 – New Directorate Established
 Primary Care Division – Primary Care, Social
Inclusion, Oral Health, PCRS, Medicines
Management & Civil Registration
 Commissioning Environment

3. Future Population Projections

4. Core Principals of Primary Care


To improve the health and wellbeing of the population by:
 providing the healthcare that people need;
 delivering high quality services;
 getting best value from health system resources; and
 keeping more people healthy for longer.
Ensure that we have a good Primary Care service
 - strong on safety and quality
 - highly responsive to patients and clients in its design and
delivery
 - strong on productivity and value for money – and can
demonstrate this
 - well integrated and aligned with specialist services
 - flexible, efficient and proactive

5. The shift from acute: Overview of the
Preferred Health System
Internal hospital processes are optimised to
support high quality care, reduce patient delay
and maximise use of the bed stock
The nature, capacity and availability of responsive
community based services is configured to avoid
unnecessary admissions to acute care and to
facilitate earlier discharge and a return to
independence
Patients are involved in their own care of minor,
acute and long term conditions –
with professionals providing a supportive,
advisory, educational and skills training role
Acute Care
Acute Care
Acute Care
Primary, Community
Primary, Community
Primary, Community
and Continuing Care
and ContinuingCare
Continuing Care
Self Care
Self Care
Self Care
No Care Requirement
No No Care Requirement
Care Requirement
There is an emphasis on illness prevention, early
detection and early intervention

6. Future Plans for Primary Care






Lifestyle factors & Socio-economic status
Move from an illness model to health and
wellbeing model.
Chronic Disease Management and primary
diagnostics
Primary Care Centres
Corporate and Clinical governance
arrangements
Universal Access

7. 2014 Priorities








Providing for Demographic Pressures and growth in Medical
Cards and Local Demand-led Schemes.
Introduction of free GP care for 0-5 year olds
Targeted investment - Chronic Illness management
Reducing costs – in areas like generic prescribing for drugs and
medicines and introducing reference pricing for commonly
prescribed products.
Improving the Primary Care Infrastructure in the form of better
Primary Care Centres and ICT enabled communications.
Extending the coverage of Community Intervention Teams to
facilitate hospital avoidance and resolve delayed discharge
problems.
Facilitating the discharge of complex patients
Improving access to primary diagnostics

8. Conclusion
 Causes
of ill health
 Inequity
 More
balanced model of healthcare
 Move activity
 Create right environment – model and
governance.