Mr. Connor Green:

As surgeons, we should be communicating it. If a family asked me directly how long I thought they would be waiting, most of the time I would say I did not know. The next question tends to be when the operation should happen and I am never going to lie to a family, so I will them when I think it should happen.

As for communication about waiting lists and the waiting periods for surgery, it should be the administrator allocated to the waiting list department. It should not be a clinician, whether a doctor or nurse, and the reason for that is it takes up clinical time to speak to families. It has a significant impact on the mental health of medical care professionals to have to be constantly saying sorry to families.

On communication that beds are not available, again it has to be part of the management structure, not us. I will hold up my hands and say I am a poor communicator with families because I do not have enough time to ring everybody during the day. There could be a better communication structure between me and the family by appointing either a physician assistant or a clinical nurse specialist. The latter is the structure we have at Cappagh. Ms Anna Wade, who won an award for nurse of the year for very good reasons two years ago, will every Monday morning pick up her mobile phone and return every message to those families. You can ask any of those families about the communication standard from that nurse.