Ms Rosarii Mannion:

I have a people's strategy and I go around presenting on it a lot. I always say that if we get it right for staff we get it right for patients. The Deputy's question was if it was doable and my answer is that we do not have the staff and are not getting it right for patients. I absolutely believe it is doable, however, and we have to do better. Looking at how we got to where we are, we moved from health boards to get efficiencies and synergies and that is a good thing. There is a role for a health business service, a national recruitment service, for large-volume competitions and setting up staff on point of scale, contract management, quality assurance etc. but there are other things where it does not make sense to leave a location and go to a processing centre and where it can be done much more quickly and safely locally. One size does not fit all and there is room for both approaches.

I would not like to be overly critical of the national recruitment service, NRS, or to say people are not doing it. There was an issue around resourcing NRS appropriately when it was established. We need safe systems, safe places of work and safe and effective staffing to be able to deliver safer and better healthcare. I am totally committed to this and I am happy to come back in July or August when I have moved forward with these recommendations.