GP denied access to National Treatment Purchase Fund statistics

PEOPLE cannot know that the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) is providing value for money because it refuses to publish prices paid for treatments, according to a concerned GP.

The NTPF confirmed yesterday that, similar to private health insurers, it does not publish the amount it has paid for procedures as it is “commercially sensitive”.

The NTPF was established in July 2002 to minimise public patient waiting lists by using taxpayers’ money to buy procedures from private hospitals.

Consultants are reluctant to get involved in the issue but Dublin GP Dr Cyril Daly decided to quiz the NTPF on the prices secured for the fund’s top 10 procedures.

When he asked how much consultants were paid for each procedure he was told he would not be given that information.

“I asked why the information was not forthcoming. I was told it was commercially sensitive. And, without my asking, I was further advised that the information would not be available even under the Freedom of Information Act,” he said.

“The fact that it is commercially sensitive seems absurd when you and I are paying for it,” said Dr Daly.

Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney said recently that any new private hospital would have to make services available for public patients which would be paid for by the State.

She also said the State should be able to buy those services at competitive prices and this was the way the NTPF worked.

However, asked Dr Daly, how were people to know whether the prices secured are competitive or not if the NTPF refuses to disclose what it has paid for services?

Defending its position, the NTPF said it sought the best value for money by actively negotiating fully inclusive prices for surgical procedures.

It used a combination of criteria to benchmark the prices. These included published public hospital case-mix costs, insurers’ schedule of fees for consultant costs, prices of peer hospitals and estimated private insurers’ prices.

“The NTPF negotiates directly with each individual hospital for fully inclusive prices which include consultant fees; the NTPF does not separately negotiate or pay consultant fees,” the NTPF stated.

And it added, like all public bodies, the NTPF was independently audited.