Mr. Gerry O'Dwyer:

I concur with Professor Higgins. It is really important from a different point of view. If we want to retain and attract the best people to our hospital group, which we intend to do, we must work in partnership with the universities and the institutes of technology. We have a strong relationship with the Waterford IT, Tralee IT and UCC, our major academic partner. The hospital system has to reform. This is the best opportunity for our hospital groups to have the best outcomes for our patients. At the end of the day, this is all about patient care. It is about ensuring patients are treated in the most appropriate location for them. It is about a seamless transfer from primary care to a local hospital and to what other service they need within our group. We need to have the best people working in our group. We need to have the freedom to operate in a different way than heretofore. That is the reason I see the new board and the groups working very differently from the system we have inherited in recent years. This is a new beginning.

The report is the platform by which we can move a number of issues forward, incorporating what needs to be done in the south east. The beneficiary at the end of the day will be the patient. The patient is at the centre of everything we in the hospital group do and is important as we move forward. We must instill that confidence. Five or seven years from now, I would hope to hear patients say they want to go there because the staff are the best and because the patients have been treated with respect, dignity and with understanding. That for me and for our group is very important. We need to change. If we get something wrong, we need to say we got it wrong and explain to people the reason we got it wrong and ensure it does not happen again. That is the reason what our group is trying to achieve is important. This is a major opportunity.

I am passionate about what we do. I am at the end of my career and I see this as a significant opportunity to provide a better service in the interest of our patients. I could be a patient.