General Practice is a key feature of the Irish health service, and through this agreement between the DOH, HSE and IMO, it is now possible to expand services for patients as well as making general practice a more attractive career option for existing doctors and future medical graduates.
The agreement will act as an important catalyst for modernising general practice over the next 4 years, as well as providing dedicated support for people with chronic illness, opportunities for increased use of technology-based solutions, local multidisciplinary team working and significantly improving prescribing and medication safety.
The agreement is below along with a companion summary presentation.
Housebound patients for vaccination
The agreed process for identifying and referring housebound patients is set out in this Communication and accompanying memo.
It requests that General Practitioners or CHO Nominated Leads identify these patients and complete the Housebound Referral Form.
They should return the NAS excel referral form to the relevant email address as outlined in the above Communication.
Operational guidance for vaccination in general practice
General Practitioners (GPs), who have already made a very significant positive contribution to efforts to manage this public health crisis since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the spring of 2020, continue to play a key role in the delivery of the vaccination programme in accordance with the agreed national vaccination schedule. In particular, GPs and Practice Nurses have had a key role in delivering the COVID-19 vaccination programme to persons aged 70 years and over as well as high-risk patients in the medical priority groups and many others in eligible age cohorts.
This document sets out guidance in relation to the approach, logistical arrangements and processes established for continued vaccine roll out as well as links to all of the necessary clinical information.
Supporting General Practice during the COVID-19 public health emergency
The Department of Health, HSE and the IMO have agreed a number of measures to:
- support general practice maintain regular essential services
- assist in the efforts to combat COVID-19
General Practitioner Services, in their totality, have a key role to play in our collective efforts to contain and mitigate the impact on public health during the current COVID-19 public health emergency. The details of the measures are set out in the Circular below and are effective from 16th March, 2020.
GPs who do not hold a GMS or other health sector contract with the HSE should be advised to contact the HSE’s National Contracts office at 04493 95519 or by email at natcontractsoffice@hse.ie for further information.
Queries in relation to the agreement should be emailed to gp.agreement@hse.ie
Social Deprivation Practice Grant Support under the GP Agreement
Under the GP Agreement reached between the Irish Medical Organisation and the Health Service Executive and Department of Health in June 2019, funding has been allocated to support and maintain GP services for communities with a high degree of social deprivation.
GP Practices serving such communities will now be eligible to apply for a social deprivation support grant.
Application forms can be returned to the National Contracts Office by email to urban.deprivation@hse.ie on or before 7th October 2020.
