Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The HSE has put a certain amount of emphasis, in the winter plan, on avoiding attendances at EDs and avoiding admissions. That is only right as it is another logjam. I mean a lot of people end up in EDs who should have an alternative pathway. The difficulty is that in many cases there are no alternative pathways. That seems to be a key issue in respect of the logjams. The advice being given to people is to seek assistance or advice locally, go to one's GP or go to other facilities but those facilities do not actually exist. At the moment GP surgeries are experiencing major pressures and, as everyone knows, there is a shortage of GPs. In addition there are huge issues with out-of-hours services. Let us say somebody has a six month old child who has a very high temperature and it is 11 o’clock at night. What should they do? Are there options available to them other than going to an ED?