Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----and in terms of career progression. The winter preparedness plan has adopted a bottom-up approach. It has gone to every hospital group and local plans have been sought. Sanction has being given to hire emergency consultants if the groups so wish. In the plans that have come from the various hospital groups, flexibility will be applied in sanctioning the teams they want to hire. As the Deputy knows, we are implementing measures to help with the flow by avoiding people gong to emergency departments and providing GPs greater access to diagnostic tests. This has been significant in a range of areas. We have developed community integration teams and integrated care teams for older people. Enhanced community care has been very effectively rolled out. All of this prevents people from going into emergency departments in the first place. The other key issue is the flow of patients through hospitals and subsequent discharge. This is key to keeping the emergency departments freer to take people.

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