Ms Paula Kelly:

With the creation of the new hospital we have tried to create that system. I am clinical lead and we have regular meetings within the orthopaedic group trying to integrate the two or three hospitals. We have that system in place. I strongly believe, however, that no surgeon should ever get to a situation where he or she has an unmanageable waiting list. That is just not fair on the surgeon and it is not fair on the children, predominantly, and families attending that surgeon. There should be a system, and we are seeking to introduce it, whereby once the waiting list goes over a certain length of time, the surgeon has to essentially say "I am temporarily full" and deal with those children on his or her waiting list before taking on more patients, which is just not fair on anybody.

Somebody brought up the issue of looking across the group of surgeons. If a surgeon is really good he or she will attract more patients, which is understandable. Patients need to be able to make the choice of who they go to. We need to look across the board - if one surgeon has a very long waiting list and somebody else has one that is shorter - at how we can implement access to care for those parents quicker. There is a lot that can be done before the opening of the new hospital for sure.