Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

I move amendment No. 6:

In page 7, line 12, after "facilities" to insert the following:

"(not including facilities which are co-located on the premises of public hospitals)".

There was much debate on this matter on Committee Stage. The amendment signals our opposition to co-location projects involving the building of private hospitals on the grounds of public hospitals and the separation of public and private patients.

Under co-location, a public patient will be sent into one hospital while a private patient will be sent to a brand new purpose-built private hospital, which has significant tax breaks for the developers concerned. The Labour Party is fundamentally opposed to this health apartheid which separates patients on whether they are private or public. We do not want this legislation to facilitate this development or the VHI becoming involved in running private health facilities on the premises of public hospitals.

I went into our opposition to the co-location principle on Committee Stage while the Minister for Health and Children restated her commitment to it. The Minister has signed eight co-location projects but there is little clarity as to what arrangements have been put in place. Will patients presenting at accident and emergency departments be marched off in one direction or other, depending on whether they are private or public?

The main purpose of this amendment is to state our opposition to the concept of co-located hospitals, which the Minister is very set on. Most of her political focus is on a public-private patient division. The Labour Party believes it would be better if that division did not occur and instead we had a Minister focussed on building up the public health services.

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