Contract loophole likely to cost €23m

HEALTH Service Executive chief Brendan Drumm has admitted hospitals are likely to lose €23 million because of a loophole in the new hospital consultants’ contract.

The expected hit to the taxpayer is despite claims by Health Minister Mary Harney that she had warned the HSE in advance about the glitch.

The money will be lost due to a payment to the HSE normally made by health insurance companies for private patients, which will now not be collected.

Under the new agreement, “type A” consultants – who make up a quarter of consultants in hospitals – can only carry out public work. But when a “type A” consultant admits a private health insurance patient, the HSE will be unable to levy a private accommodation charge for that patient.

Initial estimates provided by Professor Drumm to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) put the loss to hospitals in the region of €50m.

He has now revised this figure downwards.

In a letter to the PAC this week, he wrote: “The hospitals are indicating that they now anticipate a full-year loss of approximately €23m.”

Prof Drumm said the difficulty estimating the loss was due to the variability in the availability of private beds. He said that if a private patient insisted on having a private bed or accommodation, the hospital could not issue a bill.

Ms Harney has been at odds with Prof Drumm on the issue and said she already warned that the new contract meant the HSE could not charge for patients that were being treated by doctors on a full-time public salary.

The Irish Nurses Organisation has deemed the contract glitch a “cock-up”, pointing out the lost money could employ an extra 1,000 nurses.