Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will withdraw it if it allows things to proceed. It is essential that the capacity building continues beyond UHL. Of course, there have been some really tragic outcomes for patients there but recently when I met Sandra Broderick and the Minister on the capacity building in Ennis and Nenagh, the medical assessment units being key to that was mentioned.

Something that came to my attention this week was rheumatology. There is a clinic in Ennis that sees an awful lot of people. There was a time when the waiting list was 18 months or so, now it is a short few weeks. A medical secretary there has retired and stepped down from their post but the recruitment embargo has not allowed the replacement of that medical secretary. As patient flow cannot be allowed for and the appointments do not happen without a medical secretary, the Minister's officials might specifically look at that, as it is one of those blockages in the system. Finally, if I could say to the Minister - I have repeatedly made this point to him - we are convened here in Dublin where there is a population of 1 million people who all have access to eight emergency departments. We have half a million people in the mid-west with access to one accident and emergency department. It is a population scenario and it is a population that is growing. Would the Minister comment on the medical secretary and the population growing and how he expects that to manifest itself in health terms?