Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

Although 73% of consultants have taken the public-only contract, I am sorry I am not able to tell the Senator the proportion working extended days and weekends in the same way I was able to in relation to Mullingar and other hospitals. However, I expect that when I meet that region in January, I will get more clarity and detail on what is happening there.

Letterkenny is one of the hospitals where we have persistent difficulties in patient flow. An important example was last weekend's discharge figures. Letterkenny discharged 71 people on Friday, ten on Saturday and six on Sunday. We might confirm the Monday trolley figures and discharges. Any assertion we are looking to discharge people unsafely or unfairly has to be negated by these types of figures. In Castlebar, we saw the opposite. There were discharges of one on a Sunday and 47 on a Monday.

No person in this room or anybody watching seriously believes that 71 people magically got better on Friday and were capable of being discharged and that people do not get better in the same proportion on Saturday and Sunday in Letterkenny. That is just not a serious thing to say, obviously, and patient flow is a massive part of the problem in Letterkenny University Hospital. It is very straightforward, and it has to be managed differently.