Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

Is what has disempowered the front line not the fact that it has been massacred in terms of numbers? Some 5,000 nurses and midwives have been lost from the system. Some 2,000 have been lost in the past year and, as I said, 2,400 beds have been closed. The front-line workers and the INMO and other organisations are saying that is the problem the Minister needs to address.

The target of six hours from registration to either discharge or admission seems utterly fantastic given the backdrop of cuts being imposed on staff and beds and the fact not even the nine hour target has been met. The HSE performance report shows not a single hospital in the health service has met the nine hour target, never mind the six hour target. Is it all a question of bandying figures, indicating targets that are unrealistic and massaging the trolley figures by simply packing too many trolleys and beds into wards that do not have sufficient capacity or staff?

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