Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I would be very grateful for the specifics of what the Deputy is asserting. I will check that out. It is very much the opposite to what we are trying to do. Considering the number of vacancies we are desperately trying to fill, I would be very concerned about that. I would appreciate if the Deputy could help me out with more information on that.

Several cancer centres have plans for additional theatre and inpatient capacity specifically for cancer and inpatient care because the theatre access is so important. Part of what will help with this is completion of the surgical hubs nationally, which will alleviate some pressure on our acute theatre capacity by moving lower complexity procedures, obviously since it is surgical hubs. Aligned to that is the theatre utilisation project, which is changing start times of theatres and maximising the flow and capacity within that. As I said, if there is a particular issue in a hospital I would be very glad to know about it.

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