Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That’s a very, very broad question that could lead to a very broad discussion. Let me just say that with respect to extended health benefits, we do not use the language “supplementary health benefits” anymore because that policy has been rescinded. We are following the guidelines of the Joint Working Group. We have been having discussions with the standing committee and we are working on making some changes that would follow the Joint Working Group recommendation. So basically until something is changed, the status quo remains.

The Member is asking how that impacts the general service level of the system and I think that question is much larger than that. We as a system are under pressure. We’re not the only one. Health and Social Services spending keeps rising and, as Senator Kirby said, there are only two options: it’s either you bring more money into the system or you have to cut the programs. We have experienced that nobody wants anything reduced. If anything, our people want to see more services. What we are doing as a system is trying to do as much as we can with the resources we have, making necessary adjustments so that we become efficient to work together better, authorities work as one, we work as

a system and we put all our practitioners in every field to their fullest scope, that we talk to each other more, we avoid duplicates. All kinds of system things that we can come up with to manage our system. At the end of the day we’re not going to make changes to our system unless we as an Assembly make real tough choices.