Call for public and private hospitals to work together to cut waiting lists

The Private Hospitals Association has stated that public and private hospitals should work together on solutions to reduce waiting times and lists for patients.

Private hospitals are proposing for vacant beds in their facilities to be made available to public hospitals, depending on need and availability.

The association, which represents 19 private hospitals around the country, has published a set of six proposals which it believes would help to take pressure off the public health service.

CEO of the PHA Simon Nugent, said that all healthcare professionals want to provide the best care for patients.

“Well, I think there’s an understanding that everyone who works in the health service is committed to trying to look after patients, and I’m assuming that’s our starting point,” he said.

“This is not an ‘us and them’ situation, so I don’t foresee any problems there, and in fact there are situations where we can probably have doctors coming over with their whole team perhaps to take advantage of an operating theatre in one of our hospitals.

“If we have an operation theatre that’s free, and there isn’t an operation theatre available in a public hospital, why not use ours?”

Liam Doran of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said that any moves to tackle overcrowding are welcomed, but he believes that private hospitals are limited in how much help they can provide.

“They’re very much focuses on, if you like, elective work, which is more or less same-day admission, discharge, maybe one overnight,” he said.

“Many of the bed nights in the public hospitals are people who have multiple illnesses, they are often frail or elderly, and they require a different level of care and attention, a different level of ongoing intervention.”