No. The figures show that many private consultations take place outside of the hours that are done in hospitals. I ask Dr. de Buitléir to look at the figures for off-site consultations by consultants who have public contracts but also do private work outside of the hospital. If he adds up the figures, he will find that consultants see 2 million outpatients privately. What could happen is that private practice that is totally disconnected from the HSE could develop further.

I understand the new contract allows doctors to do private work but not outside the hospital. In other words, consultants cannot go off-site at any stage. The current contract is for 39 hours per week. If a consultant wants to do extra hours but is not allowed to do these in the hospital, it reduces the amount of work that he or she can do. Does Dr. de Buitléir agree?