Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

It is fair to say that we bring the patient voice into everything that we can, whether the development of different clinical programmes. I might ask Ms Rachel Kenna to speak on that. Regarding hospital delivery, it is really up to us to make sure that we are consistently meeting the standards that we have set. It is not a choice. If people are on the public only consultant contract, they are being paid and have signed a contract to be on it and to be well paid for the work they are doing. It is their responsibility to be available. As far as I am concerned, they have signed that contract with the State. They are being well paid to provide a public service, so they should be available when they are rostered to be available according to the terms of the contract. It is up to the hospital management to make sure that happens.

While the patient voice is incredibly important in developing our clinical programmes and the response to so many different things that we do, I do not believe that it should have to get to asking the patients whether they think this is a good idea or not. It is important for patients. We know that they want timely, appropriate access in emergency departments. We know they want access to their care where they are diagnosed as needing care. I am not saying it is excluded. I am just saying this should be happening anyway. In general, on how we articulate the patient voice, I ask Ms Kenna to speak to it from a national patient safety perspective.