Dr. Anthony O'Connor:

Utilising the pathways already there is one point. I do much of my elective endoscopy work now in a private hospital with which we partnered. That can certainly improve the day case waiting lists.

There is also the potential of an inpatient surge. Our members and many of my colleagues have reported certain resistance when trying to transfer patients from public hospitals to private hospitals. That needs to be worked on a bit better because there are patients who we in the public hospitals would have felt should have gone across but they met with barriers. That has to be looked into. If we get a surge of any activity, Covid or otherwise, in our emergency departments and we are back to having 70 to 80 people on trolleys at night, then we need to have that pressure valve and utilise it for June.