Dr. Mike O'Connor:

I actually do not differ from Professor Lenehan's view but obviously inpatient capacity is clearly required in UHL. There is clearly elective capacity in whatever way but we have overlooked one other piece that has not been mentioned, which is that many patients in our model 4 and model 3 hospitals should go to a lower level of care to enable them to get better. That is with rehabilitation and enablement units and by investing in supporting enablement units. There is a bed stock of 392 in the region of community units. Looking in that direction, however, at any one time there are a large number of patients in model 4, model 3 hospitals and even model 2 hospitals who actually would need to be in an enablement unit. There is a need for a model 4 hospital, certainly, and as we might have described earlier, enhancing of the model 2 hospitals. In addition, we need to expand the elective capacity and support our excellent colleagues in the community by building their capacity.