IMO say 'no evidence' waiting lists would improve if private patients banned from public hospitals

Update 3.20pm by Denise O'Donoghue: The Irish Medical Organisation says there is no evidence that capacity or waiting lists will improve by banning private patients from public hospitals.

A Government-commissioned report says that keeping public hospitals strictly for its patients could cost the state €6.5bn and take 10 years to put in place.

Legislation, changes to contracts and restoration of pay are among the eight recommendations to implement the new system.

The IMO says the difficulty in recruitment and the need to increase hospital capacity have to be addressed.

"It is going to be hugely expensive to remove private care from public acute hospitals," the IMO said.

"The report speculates on a figure of approximately €6bn or more over the coming decade of implementation. There is no evidence that capacity will improve or that waiting lists will be alleviated by such a move."

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said the report confirms the need for more consultants and more bed capacity.

"While it may be popular to talk about removing private care from public hospitals – an impractical illogical approach will not give patients the quality healthcare services they should expect and have paid for," said Martin Varley, Secretary General of the IHCA.

"We cannot lose sight of the fact that all patients, as taxpayers funding acute hospitals, are public patients entitled to access public hospitals."

Earlier: Sláintecare report recommends consultants’ starting salary be raised by €51,000

Update 11.45am by Cianan Brennan:The Sláintecare report into the removal of private care from public hospitals has recommended that new consultants’ starting salary be raised by €51,000 per position in a bid to fill a huge list of vacancies.

The report, delivered by Dr Donal de Buitléir, suggested that a 10-year timeframe is the most likely and “realistic” to bring about the needed change in the health system, which Dr de Buitléir labelled as being “unfair, and needs to change”.

That 10 year horizon is twice what had been initially proposed by Sláintecare, with the full cost of implementing the change tagged at €659 million per year, €6.6 billion overall.

Eight recommendations are made in the report, the most eye-catching of which is that consultants' pay be restored to pre-2012 starting levels, or a beginning rate of €182,000.

The Government will now consider the report, although whether or not it will balk at the elevated price tag remains to be seen.

Speaking at the report’s launch Dr de Buitléir said that in his opinion the changes “will happen” within the proposed timeframe.

“I am a realistic, pathological optimist,” he said. “Really, 10 years is not such a long time if you think about it. This will be done in an orderly way, but progress will be made. We are not trying to create a revolution here.”