The HSE chief executive has warned that it would be a big risk to cancel the State contract with private hospitals.
Paul Reid said the contract may even be extended to ensure we have capacity to deal with any potential surge in the coronavirus.
The deal is costing the Exchequer €115m per month and Fianna Fáil health spokesperson Stephen Donnelly has warned that between half and two-third of the beds in the hospitals involved are sitting empty.
On The Hard Shoulder this evening, HSE chief Paul Reid said cancelling the contract at this point would be a “high-risk” move.
“From my perspective, I am extremely cautious about the fact we don’t know what will happen next about the impact of COVID-19 – and nobody will thank us if we end up with a hospital system that is fully overloaded coming into a potential other performance of the disease that we just don’t know,” he said.
“That ultimately is a decision that we have to make soon – if it is extended or if we just stop it at a point in time.
“But I have to say, it is a high risk to reduce the capacity of out hospital system at this point in time.”
Non-COVID care
He said the private hospitals would be used to help the HSE bring back non-COVID care services in the coming weeks.
“We have to keep our acute hospital system at about 80% capacity level,” he said.
“We would normally operate at about 95% on a normal day and well over 100% in winter – probably about 110%
“We can’t let that happen. We have to have capacity to meet any potential surge. We are not out of COVID; we are not out of the impacts of this disease.”
Social distancing
He also warned that non-COVID services will be less efficient than they were due to social distancing requirements.
He said the HSE has set out three priorities for the return to non-COVID care.
- Ensuring people come forward for cancer and cardiology treatment
- Time-dependent surgeries
- Get regular procedures we normally work with the NTPF rolling again
“The private hospital groups and the public hospital system is all part of that process,” he said.
“We will utilise what we have in terms of the engagement we have with the private hospital groups as part of those three priorities.”
File photo of Fianna Fáil health spokesperson Stephen Donnelly. Picture by: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ieSpeaking in the Dáil however, Deputy Donnelly warned that the contract is “clearly not working” and called for the money to be given to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) to make its own deal with the private hospitals.
“Public patients are not being seen in the private hospitals and public money is now going to be used to treat private patients in private hospitals – the cost of which would normally be picked up by the insurance companies,” he said.
“My priority in this is the treatment of public patients but we know the NTPF has identified just 5,000 patients that could be transferred to the private hospitals.
“Compare that to what the NTPF did in 2018 – with just €50m, it procured 21,000 procedures.
“So clearly this is not an effective use of healthcare resources or indeed public money.”
He said the decision to take over the hospitals in March was “completely understandable” but noted that since the expected sure has not materialised, the contract should now be cancelled.”
You can listen back to Mr Reid’s interview with The Hard Shoulder here.
