Dr. Donal de Buitléir:

One of the things we were concerned to clarify was what I thought was implicit at the Sláintecare Oireachtas committee, that is, that many of these patients would decamp to private hospitals and there would be a substantial increase in capacity for public patients. Nobody knows the answer to that; it is a judgment call. We took a view that that might be a very optimistic assumption, and that it was likely if I ended up in an emergency department that I would probably stay there, in that I would not be transferred. There might be some transfer. If people accepted this proposal on the basis that it would free up a lot of capacity in public hospitals for public patients, that assumption might not be realised, and we were anxious to point out that when we embark on this policy proposal, it is not based on an assumption that would be unachievable and that would lead to disappointment. It was a judgment call. Some people will transfer, but my opinion and that of my colleagues is that there will not be a wholesale transfer.