Mr. Robert Watt:

I do not think people waiting beyond a certain time is acceptable at all. People waiting for longer than ten or 12 weeks for an outpatient procedure is not acceptable. I do not think that there is any acceptable waiting beyond a certain period. There will always be people who have to wait a few weeks.

It is interesting when one looks at the numbers. There are over 600,000 people or outpatient consultations. In 2019, the last year before Covid, there were 3.5 million outpatient consultations, so there is a number of those 600,000 who are waiting too long. Thankfully, many of them will be seen quickly. There is about 200,000, I think, who have been waiting for more than six months out of a total of 3.5 million.

In terms of inpatient day cases, IPDC, there are about 1.3 million procedures a year. There are 75,000 people waiting and there are about 30,000 people-----