Mr. Liam Woods:

The Minister has made the point that the new to return ratio is very important. There are just over 900,000 new appointments for outpatients every year and approximately 3.2 million total appointments. Managing that number and getting it right is very important. The length of wait is impacting on the new to return ratio. There are some things we may be able to do to work on that.

On the inpatient day case side we are 94% compliant with the 18-month target the Minister set, based on the expected work to be completed. That includes in-sourcing within the public sector that hospitals will help one another complete their workloads and extra clinics being run within hospitals, and some outsourcing. We are already in dialogue with the private sector on those issues. We are also progressing well on outpatients. The point made about the latest data showing just under 400,000 total outpatients is of concern. We are progressing well toward the conclusion of the 18 month target. At the moment we are getting near 60% and are working on that. There are some specialties where there will be a residual challenge within the last 6%, relating to areas such as scoliosis and sleep apnoea. We are looking for further options in the private market to address those.