Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to start by adding my voice and expressing my sympathies and condolences to the friends and families of the many women and men who have lost their lives since we stood here last Thursday.

I would like to talk to the Minister about the private hospitals. Taking over the private hospitals in March to guard against a surge was the right thing to do. It was a big, bold move and it was the right thing to do. Health officials agree that that capacity is no longer needed for the surge, and that only 20% of it would be required in the future if there were a second wave, which hopefully there will not be. The obvious thing to do would be to end the contract and put in place a contract that has an option to get an extra 400 beds if required. However, that is not happening. The HSE is giving a new reason now for retaining control and paying for the private hospitals, which is that it wants to use them to treat public patients. That is an excellent sentiment but we might both agree that the implementation has not worked out as we would have liked. I have heard of many cases relating to this issue, as I am sure the Minister has. A young man from Cork in need of urgent spinal fusion cannot get the operation. A young woman from Wicklow in need of urgent blood services cannot get access to outpatient procedures. A father from Offaly is in urgent need of stents but his consultant cannot schedule a surgery for him. Deteriorating eyesight, possible cancers and urgent heart conditions are not being treated at the moment. Beds are empty, operating theatres are dark, doctors' rooms are shut, and because of this, patients are unfortunately suffering a great deal. Many are deteriorating and it is entirely possible that some will die if they do not get access to the medical treatment they need. We are paying €115 million a month, which is a large sum of money, for healthcare facilities that we are currently not using and that it looks like we do not know how to run. Half of the doctors have not signed up, many who have signed up are not operating at the capacity they would like because they cannot access their rooms and somewhere between half and two thirds of the beds in private hospitals are empty. Indeed, there are several hospitals around the country where there are no patients in any inpatient beds. It feels like we have arrived at the worst of both worlds. I am not attributing any blame here. This is about solving the problem. Public patients are not being seen in private hospitals and public money is now going to be used to treat private patients in private hospitals, the cost of which would normally be picked up by insurance companies. My priority, like the Minister's, is the treatment of public patients, but the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, has identified just 5,000 patients who could be transferred to the private hospitals. In comparison, in 2018 the NTPF procured 21,000 procedures with just €50 million. Clearly, this is not an effective use of healthcare resources or public money.

The Minister stated previously that he, his Department and the Government are looking at this with a view to making a decision as to whether to continue at the end of June. I put it to him that given how badly this is going and how much suffering we are seeing for patients as a result, it is time to act now and cancel it. Does the Minister agree that it would be prudent to cancel the private contract, retain the option for the 400 beds if there is a surge and give the money we save to the NTPF to allow it to identify not 5,000 public patients but tens of thousands of public patients who could be treated? This would do three things. It would get our full healthcare facilities up and running, which we need. It would get the maximum number of public patients treated and it would get the insurance companies rather than the State to pay for private treatment of private patients in private hospitals.

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