asked the Minister for Health the proposals he has to ensure that the proposed 33 per cent levy on medical consultants for the use of facilities in public hospitals, will not be passed on to the patients; and if he will agree that it would be better to take private medicine totally out of publicly financed hospitals, and extend free hospital treatment to all, which would be financed by the removal of the upper limit for the payment of the 1 per cent health levy.
Written Answers. - Levy on Medical Consultants.
552.
Discussions with the medical union on my proposal to charge consultants for the use of public facilities in their treatment of private patients have not yet been completed. I have arranged to meet the union on 8 June 1984 for the final meeting on the matter. I do not propose to make any further comment on the matter in advance of that meeting.