Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

The figure of €111 million is an estimate by Health Service Executive of the amount the ten public hospitals selected as sites for collocated private hospitals charged private health insurers in 2005. I was informed by the HSE yesterday that, as a result of the ongoing public procurement exercise, the collocation initiative will not be proceeding on two public hospital sites at this time. These are Galway University Hospital and Letterkenny General Hospital. Leaving aside those two hospitals, the figure reduces to €88.6 million. I will arrange to have a table sent to the Deputy giving the breakdown of this figure for the eight hospitals concerned.

The loss of private insurance income to public hospitals arising from the collocation initiative must be seen in the context of the freeing up of 1,000 beds that are currently reserved for private patients and the significant benefits the HSE expects to receive in return for the concessions granted to private operators. Public patients will not incur any additional costs arising from this initiative. Whether private patients will pay more in collocated hospitals than they currently pay in private beds in public hospitals depends on the charges that may be set by the new private hospitals. In any event, it has been the policy of the Government since 1999 to move to full economic charging of private beds in public hospitals.

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