Mr. Liam Woods:

The Chairman asked about outpatients and how the 14,000 was achieved. There is a weekly rate of reduction in long waiters of about 2,800 and that is continuing in the system. The reduction is achieved through the targeting of long waiters within the normal outpatient process. That is the figure that was referred to.

There were a number of other questions. One was on the increasing consultant numbers and whether it reflects European working time directive, EWTD, compliance or additional clinical decision-making hours. By and large, it is the latter. We are monitoring EWTD compliance in NCHD terms. Growth in NCHD numbers could be more closely aligned to EWTD compliance but not always. Sometimes it is also additional.

A question was asked about nurse recruitment. Nurse numbers in the HSE acute division are up nearly 600 in the current year; 220 of those are permanent and the balance, 377, are students who will graduate at a future point.

The HSE is actively involved in the hospital services in Cork and the designed new hospital. The observations made about UCC are noted.

I will also mention eHealth. A laboratory system is going in nationally. There is a national radiology system referred to as NIMIS. There is a maternity system for women which is an electronic health record, EHR, for women and infants. It has started to roll out in Cork and Kerry and is spreading nationally. It is working very well.

On the issue of the scorecard, there are data on GP referrals. The Minister referred to it. Not all patients attending emergency departments are referred by GPs. The propensity to be referred by GPs varies around the country. We have the data and can make them available. They are the questions that were related to acute areas.