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

I know where Dr. Burke is coming from but the counterargument is that, if 100 people arrive in an accident and emergency department, some will obviously be more severely in need of care than others. There could be a situation whereby many people require emergency treatment at the same time. If that is not demand led, I do not know what is. I am just mentioning that to Dr. Burke. There are many factors that affect the system. For example, if 100 patients, 50 patients or whatever the case may be are waiting, it helps if they see some progress and see somebody moving on. However, if they come to the conclusion that they will be there for four or five days or a week before anything happens, that will have a debilitating effect on their mental health on top of everything else. It creates further problems. Essentially what I am saying is that we cannot have sufficient attendance to deal with all emergencies at the same moment but we need to put in place structures that are capable of moving the line along and tackling it. That is important for both the service providers and those seeking service. It is very difficult for medical staff to be in very tight situations with overcrowding and all of the other issues arising at the same time. That is not good for staff morale. We need to be mindful of that at all times.

I will make one last simple point. The community care centres were originally deemed to be the answer to everybody's prayers. Some of them are and are working very well but some of them are not. An assessment should be carried out as to how effective they are in picking up the issues that need to be picked up at community level. That is a comment and a question.

I went into a hospital. I did not tell anybody who I was. I did not tell anyone that I would be bringing up the results of my visit at the next meeting of the Joint Committee on Health. There was none of that. The staff went about their business unimpeded and, as I have said, I give full marks to how they did their job. The hospital's system was working as it should.