I will start with the first number of questions. The process for the role was an open competition, advertised through the public sector. I applied for the role because in the late 1970s and early 1980s I was a patient of the Dublin Dental University Hospital. It is also why I am the chair of CIMA Ireland, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. My son is studying for CIMA so I have decided to give something back. It is the same with the Dublin Dental University Hospital.
As regards my CV, I have been chair of CIMA Ireland and chair of CIMA Northern Ireland on two occasions in the last five years. I am used to dealing with boards and managing boards, but also getting boards to change. In the last five years for CIMA Ireland, we have joined the North and South together. In a contracting recession CIMA Ireland has not contracted, whereas all the other professional bodies have. That has been done through partnership and active participation. We look at the problem in a practical sense, asking what we can do as members to change.
As regards looking at the past and moving forward, we obviously have to address the example of having statistics for three and a half years and having average waiting times. We need to examine extreme cases and ensure that we come back to a reasonable standard for all of Ireland. It was the same when I started with CIMA five years ago, in Belfast, Cork and Dublin. We now have Derry, Newry, Galway and most of Ireland is covered for its members. One has to make that decision and go for it.
In deciding on resources, we have to move them back in and let us see if they have an effect. I will take the two examples the Senator mentioned and I will make it my business, over the next month or two, to see if we can address that matter.
The role itself is on a part-time basis and is similar to the two other roles. I have a role in Dublin on Monday and Tuesday and a role in Warrenpoint on Thursday and Friday. This role will be on a part-time basis, roughly on a Monday night involving tele-calls with the CEO. I do not expect it to take a huge amount of time but for the next couple of months it will, until I get up and running.
The strategic plan will have the seven points and the additional points I have been given today. In every organisation when one is doing four-year standards, there are always exceptions. From my experience in the 1970s when I came here first they told me to come back in two years time because it was growing. In the dental industry, they do not want to do severe dental work until a patient reaches the age of 18. At that stage, one's upper jaws will have stopped growing.
At times, that is an explanation that is used. People want a certain service, but the consultant says "No, can we wait until you're finished growing and then we will take that on?". I will check in this case.
Moving stuff from the orthodontist to qualified dental surgeons sounds great. I do not know much about the dental hospital apart from what I have read, but one must have a certain amount of throughput for consultants and one needs specialists. We have seen many examples in Northern Ireland and in the South where people have not had the numbers going through their hands as surgeons to be really qualified to do things. Dublin Dental University Hospital will have the volume going through for its consultants. When one goes and sees a consultant in the Dublin Dental University Hospital, one will be able to expect a service because they are seeing 15,000 patients a year. That service should be much higher because they have the right volume. We have seen that in a number of places up North and down South where units have been closed because there was not enough throughput going through the consultants. It is the same for dental hospitals as it is for normal hospitals.
