Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming before the committee. They referred to 3 million diagnostic tests. While I am aware of commercial sensitivities could they elaborate on the proportion of diagnostic tests per patient in the private sector? Is more testing done on private patients than on public patients? Have they any figures on the pure cost of a test, for example, such as an MRI in the Beacon versus the public cost? I am not talking only about the price of doing it but about associated staffing costs etc. such as rent of the building, whatever it involves. Have they any comparative data on the public sector?

An issue that comes up repeatedly here is the challenge of recruitment and retention of staff who are trained in Ireland but leave the country. Is that the witnesses' experience too? If so, what have they done to address that challenge? Do they have any figures on the ratio of management to clinical staff and patients? I am trying to get at the management set-up in the public hospital. Can they say, for example, that for every five patients there are two nurses, one doctor and three managers? In their management structures are people managers or clinicians? Have they gone down the route of having more clinical input into management? Have they any information on staff absenteeism rates within the private hospitals versus the public hospitals? For one night's overstay treatment, with no diagnostics or operation do they have a comparative figure for the cost of keeping a person in the Beacon or in St. James' Hospital?