Sir, – Recent coverage around Saturday rostering of hospital consultants in the acute hospital setting is puzzling in relation to two issues.Firstly, the majority of acute hospitals in Ireland are frequently operating at 105 per cent capacity with unsafe bed occupancy levels, breaching the internationally recommended rate of 85 per cent. Ireland also has the fifth-lowest number of acute hospital beds per capita in the EU.The demand for a six-day-per-week functioning acute hospital service is understandable given our high patient volumes and low availability of beds, combined with increasingly complex care. What is puzzling is the poor understanding in relation to the dynamics involved in delivering this. Simply having hospital consultants on-site all day, six days a week, will not deliver the desired result when necessary and integral support services are also not operating at full capacity all day.The diagnosis and treatment of patients is dependent on many teams, such as in radiology, operating theatre, laboratory, administrative, nursing, physiotherapy, social care, logistics, IT and so on.These are the essential backbone for the Monday-to-Friday functioning of acute hospital care. Without this support, hospital consultants are very restrained in what can be safely delivered. Secondly, I am baffled as to how delivering this necessary support can be achieved without increasing staff numbers to cover the additional day. Many acute hospital services have, for some time, been under significant pressure. They have found themselves reliant on the goodwill of staff to work overtime. The challenges are significant, complex and nuanced. Media, politicians and policymakers have a duty of care to not only understand, but to acknowledge these challenges and to report accurately in order to guide the public and support safe, sustainable, quality-driven healthcare. After all, we are all destined to use our healthcare services during our lifetime. – Yours, etc,RÓISÍN LAWLESS,Áth Buí,Contae na Mí.