Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Fawsitt and Professor Courtney for coming before the committee. As Deputy Brassil said, the Carlow-Kilkenny model has been whispered about for years. Unfortunately, it is not being adopted by other hospitals. The first question I have relates to transitional funding. Could the witnesses explain it and how it is used to change from the old system to the new system?

My second question is about how the witnesses got started on the system. I think they are very lucky in Carlow and Kilkenny. I believe in people being in the right place in the right time. The two witnesses, all of their colleagues and the management structure of St. Luke's Hospital have come together with new thinking quite uniquely, having been in the right place at the right time. It is difficult to fit that new thinking into an old-style model. Our old-style model of GP-hospital interface is disjointed and disconnected. What St. Luke's Hospital has is the opposite. How does one convince those operating the old-style model to transition to the new? We had that difficulty in the mid-west in that just this week we have had the last connection between our GPs and our local hospital broken. We now cannot communicate with our hospital anymore. We have to go through an anonymous bed bureau located in the regional hospital in Limerick. The work that was built up over the past three years in Ennis is now gone in one fell swoop. How does one get to people to get them to change their thinking?

My final point is that this should be a necessity. In all hospital groups, this model should be a necessity rather than an option. That is the message we need to communicate.