Mr. Robert Watt:

We have debated the extent to which we will look at that. We have a block grant approach through which an allocation is made. The approach we have adopted over recent years is to drive performance management and improvement, to publish indices and to look at differences in performance. That will be the focus this year but certainly, over time, we need to look more fundamentally at the incentives for people in the system. A system whereby we fund in that fashion will not be appropriate for all activities but certainly for day cases, in the context of the new elective hospitals, it may be appropriate to have a different funding model. That is a matter we have been debating.

As the Deputy knows, our system went down that route in the past and moved away from it. We now have a more block grant approach. Ensuring that everybody has the correct incentives to do more and to provide more care is certainly something we need to look at.