Mr. Jim Breslin:

When new eligibility arrangements were introduced in 1991, the logic was to put a cap on the level of private activity. On the reason for its removal in 2013, the Comptroller and Auditor General had compiled a pervious report and the Department had carried out a value for money review which found that lots of private patients were coming into public hospitals for whom the consultants were getting a fee. However, the public hospitals were getting no fee because the patients were not in designated private beds.

The consultant gets a fee but the hospital gets no fee because they are not in a privately designated bed. That was removed so that public hospitals could get a fee for private patients, regardless of where they were.