Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

May I return to the issues of consultants in the hospitals outside the major centres of population? Many of them are on a rotation whereby they work every day from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. and are on call every third or fourth night and every third or fourth weekend. If you are on call at the weekend, you will have worked for the entire preceding week. You will be on call from 5 p.m. on Friday evening right through until 9 a.m. on Monday morning. Have the delegates come across any hospital that has changed that system such that there would be a consultant on call on Friday night and Saturday, with someone else taking over on Saturday night, Sunday and Sunday night, instead of doing a stint of three full days on call?