Professor Matthew Sadlier:

The authorised officer is the paradigmatic example of this situation. We would have to invent a new grade in the health service. We would have to invent a new salary. Where would we peg the salary of this? Have we advertised a job yet? Are we going to get any applications for it? Are people going to do a job that requires 24 hours on call? Are they going to be located in one part of the country and have to travel all over the country? Will there be four regions? At 2,000 cases a year, if there are 500, that is only four each. To run a rota 24-7 takes nine staff, so how many will be needed overall? Some of this employment law and employment regulation stuff needs to be teased out before we stick things down in regulation.

If I may be permitted to use a further 20 seconds, the one person we have not mentioned today is the elderly person. We have not mentioned the care of the elderly within mental health facilities. What we in the IMO have asked for before is that there would be separate regulations for elderly and frail patients who are admitted to psychiatric units. I will not go into the details as to why, but I want to mention that so it is on the record.