HSE ‘pushing consultants to categorise patients as private’

CONSULTANTS are under pressure from the Health Service Executive to categorise patients being treated in public hospitals as private patients in order to bring more money into the system, the Irish Hospital Consultant Association (IHCA) has claimed.

IHCA general secretary, Finbarr Fitzpatrick, stressed that the public/private mix of patients was beyond the control of consultants, with up to 30% of patients with private health insurance being admitted through emergency departments.

He believed an impression had been created, not only by the HSE, but by ill-informed media commentary, that consultants working in public hospitals were re-categorising private patients as public, because they had exceeded their quota of private patients.