Mr. Tony O'Brien:

I will respond directly to that question in a constructive and engaged way. Patients live in communities. In mapping primary care networks it is envisaged that there will be primary care clusters or networks for populations of between 50,000 and 90,000. They fit within community health organisations and map groups of local authority areas. In other areas they relate to entire counties, which makes much sense vertically. In other words, we start with the patient, look at his or her community and have a primary care focus which fits within community health organisations. It includes other elements such as social care and mental health services and so on. We can all accept that this makes sense. It gets complicated when hospital groups are layered on top.

I will return to an earlier point about the hierarchy I have described to the committee. I am not suggesting the following is in the minds of members, but it is in mine. If it were my choice, the last thing I would do is re-amalgamate the hospital groups.