Dr. Robert Ryan:

There is sufficient capacity to have a national system. With regard to the education sector, which has 4,000 schools spread across the country, there is intervention and the relevant period is to be reduced to four weeks. Therefore, it is possible to create a system of national intervention.

It sounds like Deputy Butler had a very difficult experience and possibly a complicated pathway. Not every difficult case will be managed easily or readily but many cases could be managed.

If I, as an occupational physician, see someone on behalf of his employer, I do not take over his care or take ownership of everything to do with his health. I work with the individual to determine what I can do to assist with his rehabilitation and the return to work. It is a case of there being an interface between the individual and employer. Despite early intervention, there will be those who continue to remain unfit for work and who will have difficult, complex medical problems. Across the board, however, the biggest cohort will have more simple problems in respect of which early intervention and working with the employer will be effective, not only for the individual but also in terms of the capacity to return to work.