Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If you have inefficiencies arising in the system, and the amount has gone from €4.4 billion to €8.1 billion, surely there is a need to tackle that. Some of the examples I am getting from hospitals include consultants not turning up to clinics and clinics being run by registrars or senior registrars. I was given an example by a nurse who moved to the UK. When she worked in Ireland, six senior nurses were attached to a unit of 20 with 14 junior nurses. One day, you might have two senior nurses and 18 junior nurses and the next, you might have six senior nurses on and the ratio would not be the same whereas in the UK, regardless what day of the week this nurse works, there is the same ratio of senior and junior nurses and grades of nurses. Is this creating inefficiencies as well? There seems to be no overall plan in this area.