Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 6 October 2022

Public Accounts Committee

2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 - Health
Health Service Executive - Financial Statements 2021 (Resumed)

9:30 am

Mr. Robert Morton:

The work we did with the trade unions focused on trying to address much of the staff concern about being sent quite significant distances. That was in response to capacity challenges. We had to balance what we wanted to do against patient safety. Obviously, once a limitation is put in, there is always the possibility of not reaching a patient. However, what we have reached a conclusion on is that we have set a limit of 80 km. That basically balances patient risk against staff well-being. We have been working on that for a considerable period of time and it seems to be working well so far - broadly, anyway.