Professor Cathal O'Donnell:

Absolutely. The rate-limiting step is the doctors. We have an issue, as I am sure the Deputy is well aware, around medical staffing in the system and in emergency departments. CUH, because it is a big model 4 with a big emergency department and a huge cohort of non-consultant hospital doctor, NCHD, staff, has the capacity to release someone. Smaller hospitals do not have that. That is an issue we had in Kerry. It has been rolled out in Kerry and has been successful but not as successful because of staffing challenges in the emergency department in University Hospital Kerry. The short answer to the question is “Yes”, but with the proviso that putting the physician into it can be problematic because hospitals want to keep doctors in the hospital seeing patients.