Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have to look at new ways of doing old things. That must be acknowledged and it must be referenced in any conversation about healthcare and its future. We must recognise the good work that is being done in the clinical education and research centre, CERC, building and the many innovations. Most of them are led by clinicians. Many of these are superb initiatives. We were shown presentations on them. They are essentially about building capacity but by having better innovation and efficiencies driving through the system, as well as lessening people's reliance on hospital beds by being more creative in how we deal with them. That is an important part of this debate. I acknowledge the good work being done on that front by the UL hospital group. I was particularly impressed and it would be remiss of me not to point to that.

While we struggle to build the 60-bed modular unit, it is not all about funding. Sometimes staffing can be the difficulty in terms of trying to get the appropriately skilled staff. UHL has advised the NTPF that it expects to open the ten beds in the nursing home this Wednesday. The opening of the beds will be staggered for clinical safety reasons but they should all be fully operational by the end of the year, which is effectively two weeks away. It is usual practice to stagger the opening. One would not just open ten new beds on the day. Regarding the 15 beds in St. John's Hospital, UHL will revert later in the week with further information, as these beds require a consultant. That appears to be the difficulty. It is not funding alone, but the availability of a consultant.