Mr. Robert Morton:

GP workforce planning is outside of our scope to some extent but based on our own experience, we would say that the availability of GP out-of-hours services is constrained because GP services in general are experiencing a very high level of demand. Bearing in mind that the majority of health professions are currently challenged at the moment in terms of overall recruitment, the solution probably lies in a hybrid model. Dr. O'Donnell might be able to say more about this but we are conducting some trials around telemedicine at the moment and are working very closely with colleagues in primary care. Our community paramedics work in GP practices one day per week as part of the practice team. In many ways the future model is not so much a separate ambulance service or separate primary care service but one under which these services come together, where we synergise and acquire the power of all of these people working together.