Ms Vanessa Hetherington:

Health systems that have good primary care systems have taken decades to build up and it does not happen overnight. There is no reason we cannot build up our primary care system in an incremental fashion with a clear plan. With a clear strategy and proper resources, we will attract people back. At the moment the emigration rate of newly qualified GPs or consultants is huge, but if we commit to building up our primary care system, they will come back. They have suffered severe cuts, and while there are negotiations, there is no clear commitment of resources so they are considering their options. They look at their colleagues and decide they do not want to be stressed out, so they look at their options elsewhere.