Confusion over private hospital bed occupancy

Health Minister Simon Harris

The HSE has said that bed occupancy in the State’s 18 private hospitals stands at 46% as the clamour of voices continues to grow calling for the State’s short-term contract to take over those hospitals to be broken.

The executive said that figure may not take into account the fact that some hospitals “may currently be focusing more on outpatient and day-case work so overall activity should also be considered when analysing overall hospital activity”.

The initial contract between the State and the private hospitals was signed in March for three months at a cost of €115 million per month, with the Department of Health required to inform those providers if it plans to extend the deal for a fourth month by May 25.

Last week Minister for Health Simon Harris told the Dail that occupancy in certain of the private hospitals was close to capacity. He said that the Bon Secours in Cork was operating at 82% capacity, and the Mater Private in Dublin 60%.

However, data made available by Dublin orthopaedic surgeon Dr Fergal McGoldrick in recent days appears to contradict the bed occupancy levels previously reported by the Government, with a reported average figure across those 18 hospitals standing at close to 30%.

Other audits conducted by the Independent Medical and Dental Consultants of Ireland (IMDCI) last month suggested figures as low as 16% occupancy on certain dates.

Those low levels of occupancy, coupled with a row over the public contract which formerly private consultants had been asked to sign, has seen an increasing number of politicians and physicians call for the deal to be torn up as being not fit for purpose.

Concerns have been raised about consultants being shut out of their own hospitals over an unwillingness to sign the State’s contract, and about problems with continuity of care for seriously ill patients as a result.

“Thankfully, we have not seen the surge we feared,” Minister Harris told the Dail on May 14th, adding however that “we may yet see a surge so we believe we still need that capacity”.

Just 20% of private hospital capacity is generally believed to be what would be required by the State should a second wave of coronavirus infections come to pass.

The Irish Private Hospitals Association said it is not in a position to verify current occupancy in its member institutions as it doesn’t manage capacity figures centrally, and such a query would require contacting all 18 hospitals individually.

The decision to allow the State to take over the private hospitals was “the right decision for that time”, a spokesperson for the IPHA said.

“Thankfully the curve has flattened considerably in the interim period,” they said. “The requirement for private hospital capacity is currently under review by the HSE and we await the outcome of that process.”

Fianna Fail spokesman on Health Stephen Donnelly on Tuesday told the Oireachtas special committee on Covid-19 that “clearly the situation is not working at the moment”.

“Many of the operating theatres and diagnostic machines are not working as they could,” he said.

In response, Secretary General of the Department of Health Jim Breslin said that the Government is currently “in a ramping-up phase in private hospitals” adding that “good progress” had been made in recent days with regard to signing up Ireland’s 600 private consultants to the State contract.

Many of Ireland’s private hospitals are now understood to be keen to break free from their agreement with the State. However, while individual entities have the power to walk away from the contract, that power does not become live before the end of July.