Nearly a decade on, the promised 'new era' has not materialised

When hospital consultants signed the dotted line in 2008 on their new contracts, which had taken years to negotiate, it was hailed as ushering in a new era for public patients.

But today 684,800 patients are on public hospital waiting lists and the promised benefits never fully materialised.

It was supposed to mean more consultants would work full-time treating public patients.But today they make up just a small minority of the publicly paid specialists.

They were supposed to work evenings, at weekends and also in teams.

There would be one outpatient waiting list for public and private patients. And one list for diagnostics.

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