Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I suspect the Minister has a death wish because anybody who undertakes what she has undertaken in the past few years and agrees to go ahead with it is pitting himself or herself against such an impossible task. In recent times in Ireland we have tended to turn the spotlight on the negatives rather than accentuating the positives. An enormous amount of good work is taking place with patients with hospitals. While there are failures — the Minister referred to them earlier — and there probably always will be mistakes and errors made, we must concentrate on the positives, of which there are numerous examples.

I was chairman of a hospital at one time and tried to have the use of the term "patient" discontinued because people are not very patient when they go into hospital. They are anxious and concerned. I tried to encourage the use of the term "customers" instead but found it very difficult. Doctors, nurses and other staff found it difficult to call patients "customers". However, I must admit I always believed that the objective of every enterprise is to ensure the customer comes back again. Then, last year when my own cardiac surgeon released me, shook hands with me and said he hoped he would never see me again, I realised that while that was not very good business, I was very glad to hear him say it.

People are stressed when they go into hospital. There is an enormous amount of stress attached to health concerns. When I had a cardiac operation two years ago, the surgeon came to me before I was wheeled in to the operating theatre and said, "I am obliged to tell you that 99% of these succeed and 1% don't". I was already nervous and when I heard that, it was a reminder of all of my concerns——