Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

Selective quotations are in vogue. At the same conference, the secretary of the INMO stated the management at up to ten hospitals were putting pressure on nursing staff to move patients from the accident and emergency departments to inpatient wards. Does the Minister accept the veracity of that statement and if it is the case, would it not put significant pressure on people to take shortcuts with patient safety? Does the Minister agree that if we are to benchmark quality of care and patient safety, the idea that people would be forced or requested by hospital management to comply with the guidelines of the Department and SDU to move to inpatient wards is against all the protocols, as that should only happen when full-capacity protocols are enacted in a hospital?

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