Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

The Deputy raised the issue I am concerned about, namely that there are incentives to be under productive during the working week with a view to, or which have the outcome of, very busy clinics on Saturdays or bank holiday Mondays. That is exactly the sort of incentive I need to see stop.

I cannot speak to the relative activity because I do not have that data. The Deputy's example is precisely the sort of example that prompted me to conduct the work on insourcing. I wish I was a couple of weeks ahead and had the data and could give her a better answer, but I will have the information during the next Priority Questions session. The Deputy is highlighting exactly what I might be concerned about.

To be fair, Saturday clinics and the NTPF meet those who have waited the longest and there is a need for that work, as she acknowledged. These sorts of incentives or opportunities are precisely what I am trying to identify, along with variations across hospitals or specialisms within hospitals, which is also important. I want to find ways to make sure that we are not permitting those incentives and there is a standardised approach that we can stand over and thereby reduce our dependence on such a system.

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