Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There are well over 1,000 for-profit hospital beds in this country. Advertisements on the radio constantly push private hospitals and clinics, claiming “because you deserve better”. These ads turn my stomach. Who exactly deserves better? Do people with money for private healthcare deserve better than low-paid workers or single parents? The ads claim these hospitals and clinics have the most renowned specialists in the field. According to whom? Consultants in the public health system compete for senior positions and are engaged in constant professional development. Private consultants can just hire a suite in a private clinic and set up practice with nothing like the same rigorous oversight.

Private hospitals treating cancer piggyback on public multidisciplinary teams for opinions and reviews. Why are they not charged for this? Patients experiencing complications in the private sector are routinely transferred to the public hospitals for more advanced care. Is it right that private hospitals can do this without paying? When private hospitals are full, they send their overflow patients to public emergency departments. Is this not a serious dereliction of duty which makes a mockery of these adverts? How can they claim to be better on access when their emergency departments run on office hours and use the public hospitals as a pressure valve to deal with many issues?

The Government and the Fine Gael Party are wedded to an ideology of the privatisation of our healthcare system. The Government has allowed a wing of the new national children's hospital to be built for private beds. It buried the de Buitléir report on how to remove private practice from the public system. We also need to fully establish Fianna Fáil’s stance on this issue as it is unclear.

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