Mr. Paul Reid:

I know, Chair. I did say that I was going to address his question from three points. The first point was that extra funding has gone in and what has been delivered for it, and Covid is one aspect of that.

Specifically related to waiting times, we have seen the experience of what has happened in the first quarter of this year, which has been a major impact on hospital services in particular in terms of Covid. Although the impact on the community, thankfully, is in a much better place now but our hospitals experienced one of the worst quarters that we have seen throughout Covid. That has also resulted in, as we have come through the last quarter, a higher presentation of people to emergency departments with a particular higher presentation of people over 75 years of age.

Specifically related to the information in the response yesterday to the parliamentary question, what we are seeing is increased levels of presentation for people over-75. Obviously these are people who have more complex needs and more care both in the emergency department and progressing through. That is one of the reasons. There is also a higher admission rate versus those under 75 years.

Specifically the third point of the question relates to what will we do over the coming weeks and months. First, we will continuously commit to the Sláintecare strategy, which is a major investment in community services to relieve the pressure on acute services.

I have given a number of examples and I shall cite a few. First, there are multidisciplinary response teams that operate in community services. There are 30 teams that are now funded to care for older persons and 30 teams are being resourced to care for people with chronic disease illnesses. Community health networks are largely trying to shift the pressures away from the acute hospital system and emergency departments to give people care in the community, and that also involves the National Ambulance Service to provide services in the community.

Specifically to the third point of the question, which is what actions will be taken over the coming weeks and months. We are working with each of the hospital sites on an individual and group basis, responding to us and, indeed, in conjunction with the Minister, about a range of actions to be taken over the coming weeks, and particularly as we head into winter months again. That will involve some elements of doing things differently. Thankfully, we hope that with where Covid is at the minute we would be able to reduce the need for dual pathways in emergency departments, which puts significant pressure on resourcing.

Finally, to answer the question. A major element of our approach to capacity and capability is our resourcing strategy, which is all about strengthening and increasing the resourcing.

We are working in a competitive market, which I will be happy to talk about later on.

In summary, it is a combination of strengthening the capacity in the community, the redesign of pathways in our emergency healthcare, and the increase of our capacity in resourcing. My colleagues will-----