VHI’s U turn on cover threatens co-location plan

THE VHI’s refusal to guarantee cover for co-located hospitals on the grounds that they represent “additional capacity” in a saturated market is at odds with what it originally told the Government.

The refusal is threatening the future of the Government’s controversial co-location plan which proposes building private hospitals on the same campus as public hospitals.

A letter seen by the Irish Examiner shows that in 2006, the VHI wrote to the Government acknowledging that co-located hospitals represented replacement beds rather than additional capacity.