Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy pointed to a couple of issues. We are all very proud of the work being done by staff in the hospital. The Deputy is right to make that point. Staff working on the front line in UHL are doing extraordinarily good and important work in providing the very best care they possibly can to the people of the mid-west. We are not in any way, shape or form moving away from the very difficult and painful situations that have arisen in that hospital. I acknowledge that many people have had very excellent outcomes thanks to the dedication of the care. We intend to continue to grow the number of people working in the hospital. There is no recruitment embargo with regard to emergency departments or the population there.

When we look objectively at the number of people who work in the hospital, the budget of the hospital and the bed capacity of the hospital now versus a couple of years ago, all those have moved in the right way. I accept that we need to move more quickly on that and that we need to be innovative and challenge ourselves with regard to interim solutions.

More broadly, on the issue of open disclosure when things go wrong, we have legislated in this House, through the patient safety Act, to try to create that culture so that when an incident happens - I am not talking about a specific one - people can share information, admit mistakes and engage in open discussion. There is a need for accountability, however.

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