Taoiseach: Ireland is 'not going backwards' to private model of maternity care

A number of consultants chose to sign well-paid contracts with the State, committing to only providing public care. The Taoiseach said the plan cannot now be derailed.

Ireland is “not going backwards” to a private model of maternity care, the Taoiseach said.

Speaking about the escalating controversy at the Rotunda over the provision of private maternity care, Micheál Martin said contracts signed by consultants and maternity hospitals to provide public-only care “have to be honoured”.

“The private model is essentially not sustainable in the modern era,” he said, speaking to media at a commemoration of the centenary of the founding of Fianna Fáil in Cork City Hall on Saturday night.

Building the maternity hospital in Cork proved this incompatibility of private maternity care with contemporary best-practice, he said.

The concentration of expertise and modern neonatal facilities in Cork University Maternity Hospital proved to be something that the private maternity hospital in Cork could not sustain, he said.

“So we’re not going to go backwards in respect of this.” 

A number of consultants chose to sign well-paid contracts with the State, committing to only providing public care.

But Ireland’s largest maternity hospital, the Rotunda in Dublin, has permitted consultants on public-only contracts to also provide some private maternity care on site.

And the Rotunda has refused to back down from this position, requesting a meeting with the Government to explain why it was choosing to allow consultants being paid by the State to provide public-only care, to also care separately for private patients at the hospital.

But the Government is refusing to acquiesce to the Rotunda’s position.

“The Government is very clear there can't be any deviation from what has been agreed,” Mr Martin said.

The board of the Rotunda "will have to reflect” on its position, he said.

“We're surprised with what is happening within the Rotunda because consultants signed up to a public-only consultant contract and a lot of work went into that and a lot of investment has gone in behind that,” the Taoiseach said.

“And there can't be any deviation from that because this was a new departure. The Government negotiated with the representatives of doctors. Doctors voluntarily signed up to it. The hospital itself signed up to a service level agreement with the Health Service Executive (HSE), which also has to be honoured."

The public-only consultant contract was central to Sláintecare, the national strategy to create a universal, single-tier health and social care system. This is to replace Ireland’s current two-tier system so that services would be provided to all patients based on need rather than ability to pay.

Mr Martin said the plan cannot now be derailed by consultants and hospitals refusing to honour contracts they willingly signed.

“There can't be any going back. We're not going to have a collapse of what we've just in the last number of years negotiated.”