Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps I will not comment on the capacity of the surgeons or indeed the current management team. I will say that in my experience, the longer I am a public representative and engage with the hospital system, the more I know about the value of management processes in delivering for patients, for example in the reduction of some waiting lists. Although some hospitals do not seem to have difficulties with emergency departments, others have very considerable difficulties. The different management processes in healthcare management are extremely important. I know from speaking to constituents that if you are the parent of a child with multidisciplinary teams, by necessity the management of all that is extremely difficult for parents. Something that could easily be adopted by hospital management is to always think of things from the patients' perspective and the patients' experience rather than from the perspective of the convenience of the hospital. This is a mindset shift that could be made by hospitals in Ireland and adopted by the State more broadly. It involves really thinking about things from the perspective of the patient and their convenience, the difficulties they go through and how appointments are scheduled. I have always thought particularly of parents coming with children from very long distances and the inconvenience of having an appointment on a Tuesday and a Thursday when perhaps they could easily be brought together. These are management questions and the Senator is right to highlight management issues. We can always do better in this. The management of waiting lists is something we will pay particular regard to.