Ms Rachel Morrogh:

We need to clear it quicker than we are. We need to do a capacity review and we have made that recommendation in the submission to the committee. It is important to know what capacity is there. In the case of endoscopy services, capacity has been reduced to between 30% and 50% of pre-Covid levels. Before Covid, there were extremely long waiting times for non-urgent colonoscopies. There is a cancer detection rate within that group. There are currently 19,000 people waiting for a colonoscopy. How are the endoscopy services able to do more, since there is a backlog, with less, due to the capacity issue? We need to consider, while I do not know the answer to this, whether the workforce has been fully restored or if people are still in roles to provide Covid services. We have many different things to consider but we need people to take action today. We are at a crossroads. If we do nothing, we face a dire situation.