Mr. Tony Canavan:

Many of the people who are on waiting lists currently are awaiting diagnostics. For example, they may be awaiting an X-ray or some such procedure. Then there are many workarounds in place to have patients seen. A GP might refer a patient to the hospital and he or she gets put on a waiting list while waiting for diagnostics. The patient subsequently becomes more unwell and returns to the GP, so the GP sends him or her to the emergency department and the system becomes dysfunctional in that way. If we can empower GPs by providing them with greater resources in the community and giving them direct access to those types of diagnostics, we avoid the situation where those workarounds take place.