Dr. Gabrielle Colleran:

Since 2012, when the recruitment and retention crisis started, the medical agency locum bill has gone up by €57 million per annum. Therefore, there are savings to be made in that area alone. There are always background expenses related to providing sick cover and maternity cover, but addressing the locum bill could generate huge savings. However, there are things that are harder to quantify such as the savings to be made in seeing and treating patients earlier. In the context of Mr. Reid's attempts to balance the books, I ask everybody to give him a chance. If he goes to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for additional funding, the fact that there has already been so much additional funding while waiting lists have got longer will make it more difficult for him. He has had a few meetings with multiple consultants and senior leaders in nursing and midwifery, as well as allied health professionals, to discuss how we can save money without impacting on patients. The impression I get from him is that he wants to show that he has a stable pair of hands and can manage the money in order that he can have investment where it is needed. As consultants, we want to see that cost savings are not made in providing patient care but in eliminating waste within the service. In any healthcare system across the world there is 30% waste. Consultants are very keen to lead in that regard. Dr. Durcan is involved with biosimilars which enable us to save money without an impact on patients as the priority is to ensure patient needs are met.