Review Group Report highlights the pressing need for increased public hospital capacity and the risks of removing private care from public hospitals

• The track record of underinvestment in acute hospitals and understaffing of consultants undermines the feasibility of implementing this Report
• Delivery of care to patients will deteriorate further under these proposals
• No plan as to where the €8 billion needed to implement this proposal will come from

“Patients cannot be forced to pay the price for ideology over pragmatism” - IHCA

The Report of the Independent Review Group established to examine Private Activity in Public Hospitals “highlights the risks of removing private care from public hospitals and the need to increase public hospital capacity to deliver timely high quality care to patients”, according to the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA).

Responding to the Report published today, the IHCA has said the Report confirms the need for more consultants and more bed capacity and that the proposals present significant risks to the delivery of safe and quality care for all Irish patients, irrespective of whether they have private health insurance or not.

Funding the proposals

The IHCA also questioned the capacity of the Government and Department of Health to fund the proposals contained in the Report.

According to Martin Varley, Secretary General of the IHCA: “The proposal will have the effect of removing €6.5bn in private health insurance income over a 10-year period, from already severely underfunded acute public hospitals. Adjusted for inflation, the estimated loss will be closer to €8bn or €800m per year.

“The Government has a track record of underinvestment in our acute hospitals. There has been a consistent failure to adequately staff our acute hospitals. One in five of all consultant posts are now unfilled and we also have a significant shortage of hospital beds across the system.

“Add to these existing capacity demands, the need for the Government and the Department of Health to now find an additional €8 billion for our public hospitals over the next ten years and the unfeasible nature of this proposal becomes apparent. The report provides no real answers as to how the State will meet this shortfall”.

“The IHCA and its hospital consultant members have no confidence that the loss in private health insurance income to public hospitals will be replaced by the Exchequer”, added Mr. Varley.

Current consultant recruitment and retention crisis

The IHCA has welcomed the fact that the Review Group has acknowledged the current consultant recruitment and retention crisis and the need to end the existing pay inequity for consultants appointed after 2012.

Minster Harris promised earlier this month to commence talks to address this issue in September.  However, to date, he has failed to confirm a date for these talks to begin.

Impact on patients

Ireland’s population is not large enough to support both a public hospital system and a totally separate, distinct private hospital service across the full suite of complex services that are currently concentrated in public hospitals.

The proposal will also severely limit the scope for the development of new services and remove the impetus for public hospitals to continue to provide and develop the most advanced treatments available. The income generated by private healthcare in public hospitals currently is an important source of funding for such new treatments and innovation in our acute hospitals and timely high-quality care.

“While it may be popular to talk about removing private care from public hospitals – an impractical illogical approach will not give patients the quality healthcare services they should expect and have paid for. We cannot lose sight of the fact that all patients, as taxpayers funding acute hospitals, are public patients entitled to access public hospitals.

“The proposal to remove private practice from what is perceived as an inequitable system will perpetuate the delays in accessing care because public hospitals will be even more under-resourced. It will result in an extreme two-tier system with functioning and adequately resourced private hospitals operating separately in parallel with an under-resourced and overcrowded public hospital system. Patients cannot be forced to pay the price for ideology over pragmatism”.

ENDS.

For further information contact:

Amanda Glancy, PR360, 01 637 1777/087 2273108 amanda@pr360.ie