Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Dr. McNamara put it perfectly. We should recruit staff appropriately and sustainably. We should let the system work, let the people in the system feel that it is working and let the patients in the system see that it is working, instead of this madness that has been described of these requests being made for locums for unfilled NCHD posts. To me, as someone completely outside the system and looking at what is happening from the outside, this is just a crazy way to do business. Is there any indication whatsoever that this moratorium may be coming to an end, that someone is beginning to see sense and that any flexibility is about to be introduced?

Before the witnesses respond, my next point is that I had not thought about what they said in regard to those hospitals that already had gaps in their rosters, perhaps because they found it that bit more difficult as a model 3 hospital to recruit and retain staff - Sligo University Hospital is a model 3 hospital - and that the cut-off point for the embargo came on a certain day and this was where the complement of staff remained. This means those hospitals were placed under greater pressure than some others. These would be all the hospitals in the Saolta region with the exception of Galway University Hospital. This tells us something about what is happening.

To return to the other point I just made concerning the moratorium, is there any sense at all that someone is looking at this situation objectively and saying there is a need to examine it and come up with a better alternative?