Dr. Mike O'Connor:

The Chair's point about why the attendance numbers have gone up is well made. The demographics speak for themselves with 629,000 people aged over 65 years in 2016 and a mere five years later there are 742,000. That is to be celebrated. If one looks at the over-80s, there were 147,000 in the census 2016 and five years later, there are 176,000 aged over 80 years. Again, that is something to be celebrated and most of them are healthy. There is that demographic piece and the Chair has very astutely mentioned what has happened post Covid-19. We are now beginning to see the effects of lockdowns on people who were pre-frail and have moved from this pre-frail stage into frailty a little quicker than they ordinarily would. That explains the increase in the over-75s.

From the point of view of our emergency departments, as they were designed originally and whether they fulfil the needs of the older, frailer patients, I do not think they do and we need to have the redesigned piece the CEO mentioned about frailty at the front door. University Hospital Limerick is leading out on a specific area for over-75s.

We cannot change the demography and we cannot turn back the clock on the Covid-19 frailty. We have to adapt our services so they are friendly and, in addition to that, specific to the needs of the older person as they come through.