Private hospitals to boost public service capacity in Ireland

Galway Muiris Houston

Ireland is to get 1000 additional hospital beds for public health service patients by building private hospitals on public hospital sites. The move is designed to partially fill an acknowledged 3000 bed deficit in the public hospital system, and Mary Harney, the minister for health, said that private investors would receive tax incentives to build the new hospitals.

Ireland has a mixed public and private heath system, with 30% of the 4 million population entitled to free health care. The remainder either pay for health care or are covered by three private health insurance companies. Patients face increasing delays in emergency departments, however, because of a shortage of public hospital beds.

The government hopes that the new initiative will mean that patients with private health insurance will in future be treated in the new private facilities, thereby freeing up beds in adjacent public hospitals that are presently . . . [Full text of this article]

Excerpt for British Medical Journal