Ms Rebecca Maher:

Part of the approval process when the hospitals submit an initiative is that they would have to demonstrate that it is additional activity. As part of that process, when we have a negotiation with a public hospital, one of the inquiries I frequently make relates to that hospital's core activity. I would ask how many patients are seen on average under core activity for a particular specialty each week. As Ms Brady said, there can be reasons why there are challenges by specialty, geographic region and tertiary referral centre. It can be problematic for certain sites.