Professor Robert Landers:

A key point relates to empowering local decision-making. The HSE is a massive centralised bureaucracy that hinders fast and effective decision-making. The responses to the Covid crisis and to the cyberattack have shown that when local hospital managers and clinicians are empowered, they will come up with solutions. We have to empower local decision-making at a clinical level. That is one of the first steps I would take.

At ministerial level, we have to recruit more consultants. It is a scandal that we have the lowest number of hospital consultants in the EU. We have to attract and employ more hospital consultants. The Minister must immediately regain trust with hospital consultants by resolving the pay disparity, which will allow us to recruit.