Contracts to be signed for 10 new private hospitals

CONTRACTS will be signed for the building of 10 new private hospitals on the grounds of public hospitals early next year, Health Minister Mary Harney revealed yesterday.

“It is nothing to do with the general election, but the intention is to have contracts signed early next year and the Health Service Executive (HSE) is working to that agenda,” she said.

The closer the public and private hospital systems could work together, the greater the benefits for patients, said the minister. It would also mean that the State could get beds in private hospitals for less than half of the cost of beds in public hospitals.

However, Fine Gael health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey urged Ms Harney to publish a cost-benefit report on the private hospital plan. “If the minister did undertake such an analysis she should publish it without delay to back up her support for this plan. Otherwise this has all the hallmarks of a policy written on the back of a beer mat.”

Speaking at the opening of the new 183-bed Beacon Hospital in Dublin yesterday, Ms Harney said patients did not care if the Government or their private health insurance paid for their care. What they wanted was the best treatment possible.

She stressed, there could be no sweetheart deals between the public and private health system.

It was also revealed yesterday that the Beacon Medical Group had been short-listed for six of the sites. Director of the Beacon Hospital Prof Mark Redmond said the group wanted to build three co-located developments in the south and three in the Dublin area.