Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

This is why it is so frustrating to see other hospitals not being managed in this way. The pressure on staff in emergency departments is created because the rest of the hospital is not supporting them by making sure people are discharged at the weekend and that those other units are just as responsible for patient flow as everybody else. Of course, that pressure lands on top of the emergency department. I dropped into St. Vincent's emergency department on Friday night and I could see that the figures were not going in the right direction. It flipped from red on Sunday night to green on Monday morning. This is a constant battle we have in ensuring hospital flow. Tallaght is an example of turning things around in a very short period of time and I thank the Senator for highlighting that. Tallaght also had the first surgical hub at the Reeves Day Surgery Centre. We now see the impact of the surgical hub at St. James's now as well. This is an important direction of travel but it is about culture as well.