Dr. Maura Young:

The consultant advises on the diagnosis, the treatment and the care plan. He or she advises, at a discussion with members of the multidisciplinary team, whether or not the person should have psychological input, social work input or OT input and he or she co-ordinates that. When the team is functioning properly, it is like the conductor of an orchestra bringing all the pieces together and making sure they are all working properly. As Ms O'Connor said, there was no consultant in this post to do that properly, which is why it then fell apart. There was a consultant providing oversight but that person was already managing a very busy patch and was not on the ground doing the day-to-day work, which needs to happen for a team to function efficiently.