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.