Dr. Colm Henry:

Our main focus is on waiting times for departments. That means each manager on each site will drill down to each consultant level. As I said earlier, they will work on efficiencies such as reducing the new to return patient ratio and having pooled consultations in order that there is a central referral in each outpatient department, rather than having waiting lists attached to one consultant. We will work this through hospitals down through departments with a focus on reducing the metrics of waiting times, particularly in cases that are deemed urgent. They have gone up in recent years. In endoscopy, for example, there has been an 11% year-on-year increase, with an increase in urgent cases from 40% to 52%. Our focus is on getting people seen sooner and reducing inefficiencies in departments.