According to Dr Ahmad Jamal . . . originally from Pakistan, but working in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda for the past 10 years . . . the Irish system would not be equipped for any kind of crisis.

"In Pakistan, the hospitals and doctors were able to deal with the situation better because they are used to working in difficult circumstances, " he said.

"There are later shift arrangements and doctors are held in greater esteem.

Here, our hands are tied and there is no support. In a major crisis, staff would not be covered to do half the things needed.

Fear of litigation also slows everything down."

Jamal also feels that the amount of money being wasted in our health services is incomprehensible. "Our hospitals are 1,200 times better than the hospitals in Pakistan, " he said. "And yet, so much more could be done with the budget we have. When you think of the new A&E unit in Monaghan Hospital left closed, it is a terrible waste.

"In Pakistan you have so little equipment, that what you have you use carefully.

If you waste materials, the patient will die. People don't think like that here."

As a doctor working on the ground, Jamal is frustrated at the lack of input lower-level staff have in decision-making processes. No long-term solutions have ever been put forward for the A&E crisis.

Instead it has been one ad-hoc decision after another.

"The decision-makers are not in touch with reality, nor do they take into account the opinions of the young doctors who are on the hospital floor 70 hours a week, " he said. "At the end of the day, they go their own way, no matter what, but they are making a mess of it."