Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

Separate issues arise that relate to safety, who is on-call, and volumes of activity that are being dealt with in the context of the mid-west and the north east. The reality is that patient safety issues arise in those places where there is a low level of throughput. I can supply the Deputy with the figures for each of the hospitals in Dublin on a daily basis. I can show her that in some cases we have more staff than patients. If we can reorganise accident and emergency opening hours, especially late at night and during the night, in consultation with staff representatives, which is the intention, in the first half of next year, we can deliver better patient care in a more cost-effective fashion and we can allow more of the elective activity to proceed that has to be cancelled due to the pressure on accident and emergency departments in those hospitals that might not be on-call during the night-time hours.

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