Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This might be an issue for my HSE colleagues. The Deputy and I both want to remove private practice from public hospitals but my initial sense of this is that one must opt to go private. I do not want to comment on this specific case without knowing the details and those details should be given to the HSE. However, my clear understanding is that if a patient is brought into a public hospital, he or she would have to opt to be a private patient. Maybe "opt" is the wrong word but the patient would have to say that he or she is a private patient. There is no doubt this woman was not a private patient. She would not have the means to be a private patient and did not have private health insurance. I respectfully suggest that my HSE colleagues take the details of the case, although I know the Deputy is making a broader point. The specific case to which she refers sounds very traumatic and perhaps my colleagues can provide some clarity for the Deputy.