HSE knew about clause that will cost €50m

THE Health Service Executive knew in advance about a clause in the new hospital consultants’ contract which will hit taxpayers for a loss of €50 million this year.

The HSE said when the deal was signed in April 2008, officials were aware that the “public-only” portion of the contracts would leave it liable to cover fees incurred by private patients.

While it recognised a loss would emerge, it could not calculate the figure because it did not know how many consultants wanted to sign up to work strictly for public patients, a statement said.