Elective Surgery, Private Providers

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:06): Under the contract, are the private providers able to stop the services to public patients where the load is affecting waiting times for private patients?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:06): I need to stress that this is a framework, so within the individual local health networks we will turn to the private sector on an as required basis. The panel is an enabler. It doesn't pre-commit a single dollar of expenditure. Likewise, it doesn't conscript the private sector to provide a service. It is a procurement framework within which the public hospital can ask what capacity is available, how many patients, and what services can be provided by the private providers, and the private providers are able to indicate what capacity they have and what services they can provide.