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

I want to go back to the issue of the roll-out of support during the Christmas period. One of the issues that arose last year was that while the HSE had contracted beds, a lot of them were not used during the first two weeks of January because there was no effective mechanism in place for getting patients out of hospital. Will we have the necessary staff available over the coming Christmas period to discharge patients? While doctors may agree to discharge patients, we also need administrative staff to make sure we can get full roll-out in terms of getting people out of hospital. What process is going to be in place in each of the hospitals to make sure we can free up beds in the fastest possible time? If a doctor decides to discharge a patient late on a Friday evening or on a Saturday, how can we be sure it will not be Monday before some action is taken on that?