Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that.

I have one final issue to raise. I am not going down the rabbit hole of digitisation because we could be here until the end of the calendar year. I do, however, have a suggestion. We have seen an increase in virtual appointments and clinics. For some service users, they absolutely meet the need. However, when a prescription is prescribed through one of these virtual appointments, it is sent out on the old inpatient form, which is a triplicate A4 piece of paper. One goes on the patient's file, one goes to the patient and one goes to the GP. If you are a medical cardholder, you have 24 hours to get that to a chemist. Those forms were designed for patients being discharged from hospital and not for virtual clinics. If you cannot get to your GP, your chemist can write a prescription for seven days. This is bonkers. In light of the fact that digitisation will not be around in the immediate future, I ask the Minister at the very least to extend that seven-day period to 14 days. I ask her to amend the scheme and give people two weeks. I cannot get a GP appointment within seven days and I suspect many others are also in that position.