Chamber and committees

I want to let some of the others in, because you have said quite a lot.

We are listening.

It should not be any different to how we measure GPs’ output. Is it not just the same problem?

The answer to that is that I am also speaking to general practitioners and you have said that you would like to have a system like the GP system, but the GPs are also unhappy. They cannot recruit staff or locums and so on and people have to stay in the hospitals. There is therefore a huge amount wrong with the GP system.

One suggestion is that the health boards should employ all the GPs, and that might be another possibility for dentists. Let us employ all the dentists. Would that work?

Mr Thain, I do not know whether you are aware of what is happening in other countries, but one suggestion is that we should have a world-class health service. Where is the world-class dental service?

I cannot remember exactly who gave evidence to the committee last week, but it was academic people. When I suggested that we could make quite a radical change and perhaps move to something like GP practices, they said, “Oh, that’s too big a jump.” Is there any sense from the Government about its view on that?

Do you want to come back in, Dr Bashir?

Is no other bank involved currently?

It is all right.

So that would be 1:1.5 or thereabouts. Where are we going on that? Is there a target for that and are we getting there?