Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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We are being told that the day case rate was 60% in 2010, 63% the following year, 65% in 2012, 67% last year and 77% today. I do not accept for one moment that the medical cases presenting in hospitals have become so much less complex that we can go from a day case rate of 60% four years ago to 77% now. That represents a phenomenal number of patients being dealt with on a day surgery basis who, four years ago, would have been treated as inpatients. If, as I accept, procedures and patients are not being compromised, then it means that this volume of day cases should have been happening all along. It is good that we are catching up and getting more out of the procedures. The delegates might say that some of the complex ones are left, but they never were going to be part of the day surgery comparison.

On the question of medical outcomes, we have been told there is a 2% return rate, where patients need to return for further treatment or a procedure was not right. The delegates' submission states that the HSE's target surgical readmission rate is less than 3% and the actual figure is currently 2%. Does that figure refer to day cases only and, if so, what is the figure for inpatients and how does it compare internationally?