Mr. Martin Varley:

It is a valid question. I am not aware of a mechanism, other than a general indication that patients can be transferred to a public list. I have spoken to many consultants who wanted to know how to go about this and transfer a large number of patients to a public list. Where do they go on that list? The aspect of continuity of care gets fractured once we start talking about transferring a cardiac or cancer care patient, for example, in the middle of care, or when a person has an event and needs to be looked after. It does not make sense to transfer somebody in a critical stage of care into a public system that is already overwhelmed with very long waiting lists. This has been a major problem for private practice consultants. Many of them have said to me they have ethical and medical responsibilities to their patients that they could not ignore.