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But the number of patients remain constant, any doctors taken away from the public service will also take patients with them.

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False. Demand in public sector will ALWAYS be sky high since the model is "charge everyone in advance, tell them they are allowed to recoup as much as possible by consuming services". In private health care, the feedback of consumption to fees and/or insurance rates naturally limits demand with cost. Even if you have a parallel private system, participants in the public system are still incentived to get whatever they can out of it.

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I know nothing of the CMA and its limits, but there are a lot of qualified doctors coming from developing nations. Even public sector pay will look like a goldmine to them.

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Actually, the CMA dramatically limits the portability of qualifications from other countries. The fact that you think they're qualified isnt' good enough for the CMA.