Mary Henry (Independent)

I take Senator Ryan's point but Senator Maurice Hayes is right. There is much more team work now in hospitals. As for general practitioners feeling their jobs are being taken, there is hardly a general practitioner in the State who is not ready to collapse. There is no GP in Mulhuddart to treat 10,000 people and there is barely one in Ballyfermot. The people of Mulhuddart will be ecstatic, as will any medical practitioner anywhere in the area, if some social workers, psychologists and dieticians turn up. The head of the Mater Hospital blamed the accident and emergency department crisis on the fact that there are not enough GPs and that they are not working late enough. If some of them were open at 2 a.m., it would remove many of the people from accident and emergency departments. I cannot see this causing any crisis in primary care because we are in a dire situation as it is. These people will be welcomed.