Abolishing cross-subsidisation of private practice in public hospitals would offset the loss of nearly €650 million in income from fee-paying patients, Róisín Shortall has said. The Social Democrats TD and key author of the Sláintecare reforms said the existing hybrid system in public hospitals permitted doctors to use publicly-funded facilities, ancillary staff and diagnostics to treat their private patients. It contended that the proposal to remove private practice income from public hospitals would cost in the region of €8 billion per decade when adjusted for inflation or about €800 million per year. Ms Shortall said the Sláintecare report had been very specific about what the remit of the new expert committee should be. Inevitably, public patients pay the price for this and must wait even longer to access consultant care”.

Source: The Irish Times February 15, 2018 11:48 UTC