Ms Susan Clyne:

I will answer some of the Deputy’s questions and pass others on to my colleagues.

The idea of prioritising has been the fundamental problem. We have to accept that our health services do not have enough doctors, nurses and other health professionals working in them. We have to accept that we do not have enough beds. This idea of robbing Peter to pay Paul and making a choice between a consultant and a nurse will not improve the lot of patients. We need significant financing of our health services and we must take this opportunity, as our colleagues in the Irish Cancer Society said. We do not want to go back to the way it was before Covid-19 when it was not good. We want to move on and go back to a system that meets patients' needs and allows people to work in a system and deliver the care they are trained to deliver, rather than running around everywhere trying to source a diagnostic for patients.

On the issue of diagnostics in general practice, I have been looking at budgets from various Governments for many years that show an allocation for diagnostics for general practice, but this budget has yet to materialise. I understand representatives of the HSE who appear before the committee this afternoon will say the HSE is bringing diagnostics to general practice. We would very much welcome that. We would also welcome sitting down with the HSE to see how that will be run. If GPs had quicker access, we would prevent some people from being referred to hospital. People will still need to use hospital services so these services cannot be limited by virtue of capacity. We have to think outside the box and ask how, if this is the limit, we will improve capacity, not just operate within capacity.

I will ask my colleague, Dr. McCauley, who is the chair of the general practice committee and a GP in County Donegal, to talk about the diagnostic flow through from the GP to the secondary care.