Professor David Keegan:

Adjacency is important. Sligo has provided a very good model for this. Units in some private hospitals in other countries also provide good models. If you have adjacency and are fully stuffed, you should be getting up to around 16 or 20 cataract cases per day. The realities of delivering care, particularly at this point in time, are different. I have done initiatives recently on patients who have been waiting longer on the waitlist, and that level of volume is not delivered at this point in time. The cases have progressed, the cataracts are slightly more difficult and there are comorbidities and other issues. Therefore, it is not quite at that level. However, that is the ambition to get up to. We will start off in the Mater theatres at about 12 a day and going to 16 a day, which is one every half an hour. Remember, we have to mind our staff. For this to be sustainable, we cannot burn out the teams.

It is a balancing act. Conservatively, the figure is 16. With the team and engagement we have, I would be optimistic that the figure will increase.