John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Reid will see from the contributions thus far that the issue around delayed discharge is a theme throughout all our hospitals. By way of figures, the number of delayed discharges in University Hospital Kerry this year is in excess of 3,000, which is almost in line with the trolley count for the year. It does not take a genius to realise that if we solve one problem, we will go a long way to solving the other one. Something else that is adding to the trolley count is the lack of availability of doctors on the on-call, late night service and at weekends. There are specific difficulties for doctors from South Africa and other countries in regard to getting registered. If that could be moved on, we would resolve a lot of that particular issue as well.

I understand the medicine reimbursement review has now been concluded. There is not much public information about what the next steps will be or for what the review will be used. Will the report be made publicly available? What will the review be used for and what are the next steps? Are there specific recommendations in the review? Will this be a one-off process or an iterative process, which it is in other jurisdictions such as Scotland?