Harney makes stand on ‘inappropriate’ consultants’ fees in A&E

EMERGENCY medicine consultants should not be charging private fees to patients attending accident and emergency departments in public hospitals, Health Minister Mary Harney insisted yesterday.

A spokesperson for the minister said she was absolutely firm in her view that it was “entirely inappropriate” for consultant fees to be charged in A&E.

“People treated in A&E must be treated solely on the basis of medical need without even the suggestion — even if theoretical — that their status as private or public patients would influence their care,” he said.