Dr. Peadar Gilligan:

It is important that we use the resources available to us. People who have completed their specialist registrar training are ready to take up consultant positions. The IMO asked that they be offered temporary consultant positions, pending removal of the international lockdown such that they could travel to undertake further fellowships if they so wished. Essentially, they have completed their training.

Many retired colleagues offered their services to the health service again and it was terrifically courageous of them to do so, particularly given the risk of Covid to older patients. Their help was certainly very gratefully received. However, we need a more permanent solution to this, which is about getting the recruitment very definitely right. The challenge is that if we want to bring in a patient for a procedure, that patient must undergo Covid testing three days before the procedure, such that we have the result back and know the procedure can be safely undertaken and experienced by the individual.

We know that patients with Covid who have surgical procedures do less well from those procedures than they would have done if they had not had Covid, for obvious reasons. There are delays in the system as well in respect of the space that patients need, and the processing needs are impacted by that. It is a question of manpower and capacity and, I agree with the Deputy, definitely using the resources that are available to us.