Ms Angela Fitzgerald:

When the overview report was published last December, Mr. Egan, Ms Grogan and I met with HSE officials on that exact issue. There was a perception that perhaps HIQA was a block to allowing patients to be discharged on a seven-day basis. In fact, with Ms Grogan and Mr. Egan, we worked through much of that with the HSE. In truth, if a patient is going home at the weekend, that discharge should be planned during the week.