Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

To a great extent, I agree with the philosophy that it is better for patients to spend as little time in hospital as possible. However, last night there were 31 patients on trolleys in Cork University Hospital. Regardless of how good we become or how speedy the procedure is, we will still need beds in hospitals for those who still need to be in hospital. We cannot continue to cut back on the numbers of beds.

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