Ms Anne O'Connor:

On the issue of consultants and private hospitals, the decision was taken to go with an A-type contract. Clearly, everything is going to be reviewed, and as Mr. Reid said earlier, there is going to be and there is already a review under way to determine whether this would be extended beyond the current agreement.

On the use of the private hospitals, the core principle is that people will be assessed and seen on the basis of clinical need and that the continuity of care is maintained. For private consultants who have patients already, they can continue to see them. For us, the important bit is that we get to see the sickest people who may have had their treatment deferred or cancelled as a result of the work that we had to do to be able to cope with the potential surge.

We are looking at all of that and at the level of activity in the private hospitals. We know that from an inpatient perspective, that is at about 44-45%, but the day case occupancy is now up to over 80%. We are seeing a higher level of activity. We, along with the Department of Health, did engage and will continue to engage with the consultant bodies as part of this process.

In terms of the activity that we need to continue, it is going to be very important for us that we maintain a flow. Certainly, in terms of the prioritisation of people in line with the waiting lists that we have, we are going to continue looking at that with the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF.

For us, this has not been a simple matter. It has been in response to an extraordinary situation and we are evaluating it in terms of the service response, the impact on people who need health services, and of course the value for money as part of that.