Dr. Orla Healy:

I do not think we want to pre-empt the findings of the trauma report. Our view is that we would like a trauma centre to be located in Cork and that Cork University Hospital would have a lot to offer in that regard as a model 4 hospital with a full range of specialties. I accept that the emergency department at Cork University Hospital is busy. It has problems with trolleys. However, it gets through the patients and meets its nine-hour patient experience time targets. Despite the high attendance at the department, virtually no patients have to wait longer than nine hours.

Deputy Barry also asked about the closure of a second emergency department in the city. We have already closed one emergency department in the city and activity has been transferred as part of that process. The emergency department at Mallow General Hospital has been converted into a local injury and medical assessment unit. The throughput in those units is now at the level it was at prior to the closure of the two departments. The level of activity is more or less exactly the same. The same cohort of patients is being seen through a different model. The same is true of Bantry General Hospital.

The original reconfiguration plan for Mercy University Hospital in Cork provided for a move to a 12-hour model. It was subsequently decided under the acute medicine and emergency medicine programmes that a model 3 hospital can function either as a 12-hour or a 24-hour facility. It is not for us to pre-empt the findings or recommendations of the trauma report with regard to this site. I agree with Dr. O'Reilly that one cannot move to another model overnight. If such changes are to be made, one must have capacity in place.