Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

Deputy Reilly represents every second vested interest that opposes any change in the health system proposed in this House. I already replied to a question on Beaumont Hospital. An extra 1,000 day-case patients were treated there in the first quarter of this year compared with last year. Reductions will be achieved by hospitals doing things differently, such as bringing in people on the same day for surgery. Approximately 3% of admissions from accident and emergency units are for diagnostics. It is a case of doing all of those things. We should not get obsessed about the number of beds. It is about the money following not just the patient but the patient's best health. That does not always mean that the patients should be in a hospital - far from it - it means the patient getting access to the appropriate treatment he or she needs wherever he or she requires it. Often that is in a community non-hospital environment.

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