HSE asks GPs to join minor surgery scheme roll-out

Junior health minister Kathleen Lynch has confirmed that the HSE has asked GPs around the country if they are interested in participating in the rollout of a scheme of minor surgeries.

Speaking while she and party leader Joan Burton were attending Labour’s Health Policy Forum in Cork, Ms Lynch said: “A lot of GPs do it anyway but I suppose it is within the private sector to a great extent. There will be 20 new centres around the country for GPs because we now have the infrastructure in terms of primary care centres that the equipment can be there and we will have grants for that equipment.”

A HSE spokesman said €500,000 has been set aside for the scheme in the 2015 service plan. The scheme will expand further in years to come if the pilot is successful. Side by side with the pilot, research will be conducted by the Irish College of General Practitioners and also the acute surgery programme. It is understood that research will compare the outcomes of the procedures in a hospital and a primary care setting.