Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

I will most definitely bring the Deputy's request to the Minister. One of the significant proposals made by the special delivery unit, and which appears to be common sense to anyone who has spent any time in hospital, is that consultants make two daily ward rounds rather than one. As we all know, people can be discharged later in the day once results come back from laboratories. In such circumstances, there is no point holding on to patients until the consultant does another round the following morning. Taking such a common sense approach will have an effect.

The special delivery unit has also informed us of a significant finding, that the number of people attending accident and emergency units does not increase in the winter months we associate with chaos. What changes is the type of patient presenting in winter, specifically people with chest infections and so forth who need to be admitted to hospital. This appears to be the reason for the backlog. Having this type of information will allow us to engage in planning. I will bring the Deputy's reasonable request to the Minister.

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