Dr. Tom Ryan:

I might talk to the Deputy about the acute hospital system. There is no cap on the number of hours someone works in the acute hospital system. One is still expected to cover weekends when one is on-call for 24, 48 or 72 hours. It is not unusual to do a working week and then work eight to 12 hours on Saturday, the same on Sunday and come back to work on Monday. I speak from personal experience in the hospital where I work. I think of a particular night when I had four other consultants in at 2 a.m. on a Sunday morning and two others on the telephone. We all came back to work on the Monday morning and worked away. If one goes down the health and safety route, the amount of work we are doing in public hospitals does not comply with the working time directive. That is because there are not enough consultants in the system. We are short 2,000 or more consultants. It is not safe or healthy for the consultants who work in the system and as a result, they leave.