Dr. Brendan O'Shea:

Through the Chair, we might go to some neutral territory. I practice in Newbridge where we have physiotherapists. We have some private physiotherapists in Newbridge and we have HSE employed primary care physiotherapists. For whatever reason, it takes six, 12 or sometimes more weeks to get an appointment with the HSE-employed physiotherapist. The HSE physiotherapist operates on a paper-based system. It is not easy to get on the phone to the therapist directly. The private physiotherapist can be contacted by text and e-mail and will see the patient the next day. The perception of patients, regrettably, is that the care provided by the HSE-employed physiotherapist is significantly less good than the care provided by the private physiotherapist.