Patients at new casualty clinic to pay €200
However, patients cannot just drop in and will have to be referred by their GP in order to use the luxurious facility at the Galway Clinic.
The clinic is the newest private hospital in the country and is one of the most impressive buildings in Galway. It was developed by Dr James Sheehan of the Blackrock Clinic and its backers include meat baron Larry Goodman.
The fee will be in the range of €150 to €200, but may eventually be covered by private health insurance.
Medical Director at the Galway Clinic, Dr Olywn McWeeney, said patients will get the full benefit of the hospital’s wide medical expertise.
“They will have immediate access to a consultant’s opinion and same day results from scans and MRI, and decisions will be taken as to whether or not they need hospitalisation.
“There will be a fee because we do not have any outside funding, so there has to be a cost,” she said.
Meanwhile, nurses have warned they will take industrial action if the number of patients on trolleys in hospitals’ accident and emergency departments does not fall well below 200 before the end of the month. Yesterday the figure was 226.
Such a reduction would show the Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Mary Harney, was really serious about tackling the situation, said the Irish Nurses Organisation’s (INO) deputy secretary, David Hughes.
The INO decided to defer industrial action last month after Ms Harney said she expected to see real progress this month in resolving the A&E crisis.
But Mr Hughes said it was now likely the lunchtime protests outside overcrowded A&Es would proceed next month because hospital management remained complacent on the extent of the crisis.
“If the INO campaign proceeds we are likely to see protests involving staff, patients and the general public at affected hospitals on a rotational basis during the month of April,” he said.
The A&E campaign group, Patients Together, which has almost 500 members, is to hold a general meeting in the Mansion House in Dublin on Tuesday to discuss how they can convince Ms Harney of the need to act now to end the crisis.
The group met Ms Harney in November and asked for a second meeting with her last month, but all they got in reply was an acknowledgement of their request.
“We just feel that her back has been turned to us. She is not acknowledging that patients and nurses are suffering,” said spokeswoman Janette Byrne.
The campaign group said the nurses’ action would have their full support.
