Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 25 January 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Emergency Department Overcrowding: Discussion

1:30 pm

Mr. Liam Woods:

I agree with the Deputy’s underlying point that advanced nurse practitioners are a very valuable resource in the wider health environment, both in emergency departments and elsewhere, as has been demonstrated to be the case. We agreed with our partners that the figure would be 148, close to the 150 to which the Deputy referred. Our objective is to grow to that number as quickly as we can. We have approximately 80.