Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We understand but essentially they were private patients. Their insurance companies were going to pay for their care and treatment and we stepped in and said we would pay for it instead, if they can get it. My final question is probably more for the IMO but also for the IHCA. It is about solutions. We now have a perfect storm. We have lost 20% of beds in our public hospitals by going from about 100% to 80%. In her opening statement, Ms Clyne referred to a loss in capacity of up to 50%. Be it diagnostics or outpatients, a lot of doctors are saying that is what is going on. We need solutions and we need them for this year. That reduced capacity is going to stay with us. There is a fear that our entire healthcare system is going to be overwhelmed by an increased level of demand at the same time as a massive reduction takes place in capacity and huge additional expenditure needs arise around PPE, testing and tracing. A new care area, namely Covid-19, has also arisen along with a €30 billion deficit in our finances. We need solutions to increase capacity now. As we know, building hospitals takes a very long time. Have the witnesses solutions for what we can do to increase capacity immediately?