Mr. Philip McAnenly:

It was not a teaching hospital and tended not have the same turnover of staff as one would find at teaching hospitals. They would have been largely permanent staff. In response to the Deputy's question regarding the chances of the staff rebuilding their career elsewhere, unfortunately, it is almost zero because there is a recruitment ban in the health service. The moratorium on recruitment provides for some grades being exempt from the recruitment ban but unfortunately nursing and midwifery are not exempt grades. The Government may consider in the medium term temporarily lifting that ban on recruitment not only because of the difficulties those 205 nurses and midwives now face, but because of the well-chronicled and well-reported difficulties that the public health service is currently suffering. We need only consider the number of patients who were on trolleys last night.