Ms Eilísh Hardiman:

Today, our hospitals are at 100% bed capacity because we are dealing with emergency cases. We have had the highest number of attendances to our emergency departments and urgent care centres. There has been as much as a 36% increase compared with the same time in 2019. We cite 2019 as we do not view 2020 as a normal year. I know that the Deputy will understand that the solution is not just about theatre times and that it is about making sure we have beds. Therefore, we need to expand the number of beds and increase theatre times to be able to accommodate this. If we stopped working on the weekends then some elective procedures will not be accommodated on a Monday and Tuesday. Our plans have identified that we should expand the number of beds, MRI scanners, staffing and theatres together otherwise a block will be created elsewhere in the system.