Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Surely all aspects of the delivery of health services are a priority. If any element is removed, it throws the weight or burden onto some other sector within the services. Dr. Burke asked which hospital I was in recently. I was in St. James's Hospital. I went in as a public patient, not as a private patient, through the public hospital system to test the system we are always talking about.

I have to say the hospital did very well. It would have scored very highly in the management of the queue in the accident and emergency department. Some people were obviously in need of urgent treatment and they got it. Some people were not as much in need of urgent treatment, which is a possibility.

There is another thing that comes to my mind. The delivery of health services is demand led. We do not arrange to be in need of health services on a particular day of the week or a particular month of the year. We cannot deliver services to every individual who wants them at the hour they want them, even in emergency care, because there can be many people demanding and requiring attention at the same time. A means has to be found to spread the load to ensure the queue is kept moving. I give St. James's Hospital full marks in that area.