Results 7,401-7,420 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: I would like to ask Dr. Keegan a question. One of the things I think this comes down to, from a financial perspective, is that we have bought into the principle, but we have to pay for the principle. Does Dr. Keegan have a sense as to whether public hospitals, when they charge insurance companies for private work, fully recoup the costs with a bit of a margin? Do they recoup less than the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Sorry, I just do not want to get lost in the detail. Maybe Dr. de Buitléir knows. Does private work subsidise cover its costs?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: In regard to true economic costs, in cash terms, if I am running a hospital, and I am treating private patients, are their insurance companies fully covering the costs of that treatment?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: I am not sure one would get a perfectly straight answer from the insurance companies. Does Dr. de Buitléir have a view?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Okay. It is pretty important.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Okay. If we are talking about funding the removal of private care, it is pretty important whether or not we know if that private care is covering its costs right now. What we could be doing, if the public system is getting the costs plus a margin, is stripping more money out of the public system, which the Exchequer's going to have to cough up for. Neither Dr. Keegan nor Dr. de...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes. Would Dr. de Buitléir be recommending flexibility within those contracts? Would he be recommending a contract where a consultant can say he or she wants to sign up to three days a week in the HSE, leaving him or her with other time?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, there needs to be monitoring. Would Dr. de Buitléir be okay about a contract that says one can work one to five days in the public system and fill one's boots with whatever one wants to do in one's spare time?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: So, yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: More flexibility. One of the things the report talks about is a payment to consultants to encourage them to move to the new contract and potentially looking at the salary levels to account for the fact they would not be doing private work. However, there is a wide variance in how much money one can make in private practice versus public work, depending on specialty. My understanding is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Sure. Coming back to the core principle, underlying the Sláintecare report - I think Dr. de Buitléir mentioned it today and it is in the report - is a belief that removing private patients from public hospitals will lead to an increase in capacity for public patients. On the basis that most of the private patients are still going to come into the public hospital, that assumption...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: That is okay. I ask Dr. de Buitléir to bear with me for a second. The first reason for doing it is that it will free up capacity in the public hospitals. The data would suggest that that is probably not true. The second reason for doing it is that it might free up financial resources, but if we do not know if private is subsidising or being subsidised by the public budgets, we do not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: I am agreeing on the principle but my question is whether it will make an actual difference to the public patient.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: That is true but for that to apply, doing this has to make things better for the public patient. Can Dr. de Buitléir tell the committee how it makes things better?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Dr. de Buitléir believes it will bring the waiting times down. That is fine.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: I have a few quick-fire questions. I want to go back to the fact that the new national children's hospital and the new national maternity hospital will have dedicated and separate private facilities. To the best of Dr. de Buitléir's knowledge, is there any requirement under the consultant contract for the treatment of private patients in public hospitals to be in dedicated and separate...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Thanks. I want to clarify something because statements were made here earlier that are grossly unfair to our healthcare professionals. It was suggested, not by our witnesses, that private patients going into accident and emergency departments in Ireland would receive more favourable treatment than non-private patients. To the best of my knowledge that is absolutely untrue and would be a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: No, Dr. de Buitléir did not. It was a member of the committee.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, it is not true. I want to disassociate myself from any suggestion there is preferential emergency care in this country. Not for a moment am I suggesting the witnesses implied there was. Maternity care is a good example of where a lot of women, if they can access and afford private care, will go for it. The main reason one hears for that decision is the woman wants the same...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Private Activity in Public Hospitals: Discussion (23 Oct 2019)

Stephen Donnelly: Did the independent review group look at that from the patient's perspective in the report?