Dr. Niall Colwell:

I did a list in Waterford on Monday and I asked if I could get some patients on the next list in the hospital. I was given a date of 22 February. We need to be given the tools to do our trade and at the moment we are miles behind the curve.

As regards damage in terms of ambulance transfer, there are experimental models which show that if one ties an artery of a dog, 70% of the heart muscle is dead and will not come back after three hours. Time is muscle, muscle is time and every minute counts.