Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)

Moving on from that, we have 19 maternity units around the country. My understanding is that only six of them are computerised at this stage, even though the computerisation programme started five or six years ago. When are we going to progress it to 19 units being fully computerised? Second, we have a lot more consultants now in each of the smaller units but the problem is that they are dealing with a smaller number of cases. Therefore, does their clinical expertise dissipate because they are now dealing with smaller numbers? A consultant working in the Rotunda Hospital could be dealing with 30 to 35 deliveries a day but in a smaller unit a consultant might be dealing with only three or four a day. In a lot of cases, it would be the nurses who would be managing many of those. It is only the complicated ones the consultants would end up being involved in. Therefore, is there now a challenge in the smaller units as regards clinical expertise and the erosion of that because of the lower volume of work?