Professor David Keegan:

We have a certain amount of physical infrastructure available but we do not feel we have enough capacity. Coming out of Covid, staff across the whole health sector are struggling with the delivery of care, particularly in the context of distancing rules and restricted waiting times. Despite all of this, the level of clinical need continues to rise. There is a lot of space throughout our system, especially in the community, and we want to make sure we are using that correctly in the first instance. This is all part of our elimination of waste. I am sorry to keep going back to it, but I highlight the model being operated in Ashgrove House and Grangegorman. There are facilities in Cavan, Monaghan, Dundalk, Drogheda, Navan and other locations across the region. Let us get the right equipment, the right staff into those units before we go back to those with the big cheque book looking for capital in respect of this. We are going to try to do this without that, but it may then become apparent that there is a specific unit that needs to come in around this. We would hope to be part of and run alongside the primary care centres that are planned across the country and that there would be provision for eye rooms in those centres. The example is in paediatrics, where 60% of paediatric care in Temple Street can be safely managed in the community in a team like Dr. Roger's or those of his colleagues across the other CHOs. It is testimony to the creation of space wherever possible.