Dr. Emma Curtis:

When the hospital was designed, there were eight outpatient rooms assigned for private outpatient clinics. There are no private beds, theatres or diagnostic facilities. However, there was an existing contract. It was deemed that in order to honour that consultant contract, and the understanding that it provided an entitlement to run a private outpatient clinic, there should be a provision provided for that in the planning. The eight outpatient rooms are within the outpatient department. They are exactly the same in design as every other outpatient room in the hospital. If the decision of Sláintecare is that there will not be any private practice whatsoever within the hospital, the rooms will return to public usage, in that they are designed exactly the same. This was a contractual matter in the design. It is the only designed provision and it is entirely flexible in its design. There is nothing different about the rooms, so they can be returned to the public realm of the hospital. The decision was made based on the understanding of existing consultant contracts at the time of hospital design.