Use of private hospitals may be extended if Covid crisis continues beyond five months

PHA chief promises ‘minimal negotiation’ in severe pandemic

Private hospitals will continue to work with the HSE in the fight against Covid-19 for as long they are required.

The landmark deal between the HSE and the Private Hospitals Association (PHA) is for an initial three months, with an option for a two-month extension. However, the PHA has said it will continue to work with the HSE beyond that point if required to do so.

Dr Josh Keaveny, chair of the PHA, also said that the public and private sectors need to work together to ensure those with non-Covid related illnesses do not end up with “not as good an outcome as they could have”. He made the remarks on RTÉ’s Today with Seán O’Rourke.

The deal between the HSE and the PHA enables the HSE access to the existing bed capacity, equipment, and the services of clinicians and healthcare professionals working in the private hospital system.

It includes some 2,500 inpatient and day beds in 19 hospitals, and more than 8,000 staff.

Dr Keaveny said the timeframe of the public/private hospital partnership is “not totally open-ended”, but that private hospitals will play their part as required and work in partnership with the HSE.

The initial agreement is for three months and includes an option for the HSE to add an additional two months. After that, it is negotiable.

“The Government feels that by five months, the hope is that we’ll have passed crisis stage,” said Dr Keaveny.

“But we’ve been quite clear with the Government that if the pandemic remains a serious problem, we will continue in the partnership and there’ll be minimal negotiation on that if we have a severe pandemic.”

He said that considering the number of hospitals involved and the scale of the issue, he feels negotiations went “quite quickly”.

The cost will be assessed on the costs of running hospitals and of things like disposables, he said, and a formula has been worked out between the PHA and the HSE.

He added that they do not know what the partnership will cost the taxpayer because they do not know how long the situation will last.

“We’re not sure how much work, the complexity of the work that will come into the private system, so it is difficult to put an exact figure on it,” he said.

“The private hospitals will be acting in unison with the public hospitals, all patients receiving treatments or investigations will be treated as public patients only... everything will be done on a needs basis, irrespective of whether they are public or private.”

All patients will be admitted as public patients, he said, and there will be “no money changing hands” within private hospitals.

He also said it is “absolutely crucial” that the private sector continues to function.

He said the rest of the health service continues, and that parallel to the corona-virus crisis people will have heart attacks, strokes, and develop cancers.

He said the challenge is that the health service bands together so those with illnesses that are not related to the Covid-19 outbreak do not end up with “not as good as an outcome as they could have”.

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