Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 133: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the way she will ensure that hospital consultants who continue to work under their existing contract spend the appropriate time caring for their public patients and use only the appropriate percentage of beds in public hospitals for their private patients; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45499/08]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The Health Service Executive (HSE) has responsibility for implementing, monitoring, and ensuring compliance with the terms of the consultants' contracts. The HSE has issued guidance to health service management regarding the need to ensure consistency in the application of contractual arrangements with regard to consultants. Consultants who choose to remain on the 1997 contract are contractually obliged to comply with the relevant sections of the contract and its associated Memorandum of Agreement which relate to scheduling and organisation of work and the conduct of private practice.

Clinical Directors will be appointed and will have a pivotal role in managing and monitoring consultants' contractual arrangements, including monitoring the ratio of public/private practice undertaken by individual consultants. In addition, measurement systems in relation to the public/private mix are being put in place.