State won’t pay private patient insurance

THE State will not pay the insurance premiums for hospital consultants treating private patients, Health Minister Mícheál Martin said yesterday.

Hospital consultants are the only public sector group who have refused to co-operate with the new Government agency dealing with compensation claims.

The Department of Health has offered to carry all the insurance risks for consultants treating patients in public hospitals but not for their private patients.

But the Irish Hospitals Consultants Association (IHCA) have rejected this offer because they say that if they are no longer paying insurance themselves, their premiums for treating private patients would be doubled.

Mr Martin would not comment on the details of negotiations with the consultants yesterday as he said they are at a sensitive stage."But the State will not pay health insurance for the private patients of consultants," Mr Martin added.

The only consultants that the State has conceded to cover for both public and private patients are obstetricians because their insurance costs are so high, Mr Martin said.

He made his comments after briefing Southern Health Board (SHB) staff about the implications of the new reforms in the health service.

This will see all 11 health boards abolished and replaced by a Health Service Executive that will take over the day-to-day running of the health service along with four new regional bodies. A new National Hospitals Office will take over the running of the country's acute hospitals.

Asked if these reforms will lead to any job losses when the health boards are abolished, Mr Martin said: "Jobs are not at risk, the 4,000 extra staff taken on by the health service in the last few years will be kept on now that they have been sanctioned by the Department of Finance."

Mr Martin took questions from SHB staff in Cork city and by video from staff in Tralee, Killarney, Mallow and Bantry and said he got a sense that the workers wanted to be part of the change.

Staff were, however, concerned about who would be their new line managers and how the service will work at a local level.

"They were anxious that the models that are now working would be continued and about the integration of community care and acute services," Mr Martin said.

He assured the health workers that the new system will bring a good integration of community care and acute hospital services.

Mr Martin indicated he would back the recommendation by the Hanly report on medical manpower due to be published next month that 1,000 extra hospital consultants be appointed.

"It could be a win-win situation because it is not possible to double the number of junior doctors, which the EU regulations would require, and the appointment of more consultants may not be as costly as people thought," Mr Martin said.