Ms Colette Cowan:

I thank Deputy Maurice Quinlivan for his queries. On the consultant on a 13-hour week, that is not specific to UL Hospitals Group; therefore, I cannot comment on that issue. However, I assure the Deputy that I am aware of the movement of all my consultants around UL Hospitals Group. We have a unique system where all our patients are treated on the sites of the six hospitals because we do not have a private hospital in the region to monitor. I can supply the Deputy with the consultant contracts. I think his question was how many consultants are private consultants. Most of my consultants are category B consultants. In effect, they work in the public hospital system and may do some off-site work for outpatients. While a very small number were there pre-2008, the majority are on 2008 contracts. I will share that with the Deputy, if that is helpful, in the coming days. He also asked about monthly reports. We take our data from the hospital in-patient enquiry, HIPE, system and it is reviewed on a monthly basis. Those reports are aggregated and looked at. They are not only site-specific but are across the hospital group. As we reconfigured in 2009, all of my consultants work cross-site through the system. We have a full management team on-site in UL Hospitals Group and the clinical directors with me. Skin and hair flies when reports are read, on which I assure the committee.

The Deputy's other query was about recouping funds. There was one historical incident when funds were recouped from a consultant in UL Hospitals Group. That money is put into a research fund to develop research and development. I have not recouped funds from consultants myself and am going into the fourth year of my contract.

I find that month on month, when I address individuals and say their ratios are changing, they look at their patient ratios and address it. As I said, that is a difficult conversation, because I have to ensure all patients, whether public or private, get care at UL Hospitals Group.