Dr. Deirdre Duffy:

I think this was the point of view from service providers, again quite cohesively, that the mandatory aspect was problematic. It is also worth bearing in mind that it is problematic for the reasons of timing out, and the reasons that this is not a 365-day service, so it creates operational problems. I refer to specific categories of vulnerable populations for whom making multiple journeys is a significant barrier to care. For service providers, this mandatory component is introducing artificially barriers to care that are having uneven effects and impede access to the service.