Consultants may lose out on private patient fees

HOSPITAL consultants will not be reimbursed for treating private patients in public hospitals under Government plans to co-locate public and private facilities.

According to a report in the Irish Medical Times, where a private patient cannot be admitted to one of the new proposed private facilities co-located on public hospital grounds because beds are full, the patient can only be admitted to the public hospital as a public patient.

The report says the condition is tied in to Government plans to permit the development of private hospitals on public hospital sites, to end the use of public beds for private patients.

Consultants get paid for private patients regardless of whether they are in a public or private bed, while hospitals only get paid for private patients in designated private beds.

Assistant secretary general of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association (IHCA), Dónal Duffy, said they had not been briefed on the conditions attached to the Government's private hospital proposals.

"All we've had is the Tánaiste's approval (in July) for such developments. We have no information on the detail involved but we presume it will be included in our contract talks."

Because consultants have not yet entered talks with Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney, Mr Duffy said it was too early to say if the proviso would annoy consultants.

He said consultants did not know if patients were public or private when treating them in a public hospital, but that they "treat them anyway".

Ms Harney has formally written to hospital consultants asking them to enter contract talks, which have been on hold for over a year because of a row over insurance cover for doctors.

Following a meeting of the IHCA's national council, Mr Duffy said their position remained the same.

"We are available to enter talks when the issue of clinical indemnity has been addressed," he said.

It is believed health service management and the Department of Health will call for widespread changes in the way consultants work in public hospitals during the talks, including a stipulation that some consultants work only in the public sector.

Yesterday, a department spokesperson declined to say if consultants would lose out on private patient fees if bed shortages arose in private facilities.

A department statement read: "Operational arrangements arising from the initiative (private hospital proposals) recently announced by the Tánaiste will be the subject of discussion between the department and the Health Service Executive in due course."