Dr. Matthew Sadlier:

Ultimately, one of the main arguments raised here is a little false. In normal times, the public hospital system operates at near 100% of capacity, as does the private hospital system. While in an emergency period of a number of months the capacity for elective care in one or both of those systems can be reduced, the demand ultimately builds up and will come into the system. The overall system ultimately needs more capacity. We need more beds than the public and private systems combined can provide. That is the ultimate problem. If we were to go back to using the private system for public patients or for surge capacity, all we would be doing is causing a build-up of patients which will leak into either the public system or the private system. Ultimately, we need more capacity in the country, regardless of the system it is in.