Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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244. To ask the Minister for Health the charges that are made to private patients who are using public hospital facilities in either public wards, semi-private or private wards; and the proportion of beds in public hospitals for which such payments are received. [29177/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Government’s policy is that the core function of the public hospital system is to provide equitable access to hospital services for public patients. In that context, all persons ordinarily resident in Ireland are eligible for public hospital services. In addition, patients may opt for private in-patient care in public hospitals subject to the requirement that the proportion of private activity is public hospitals should in the main be limited to 20% of total activity and private patient charges are set to recoup the cost of the hospital services provided to private patients.

Section 55 of the Health Act 1970 (as amended) provides that the HSE may make available private in-patient services to persons who do not have or have waived their eligibility to public in-patient services. These services include accommodation, non-consultant hospital doctors, nursing staff, medicines, blood, medical and surgical supplies, radiology, diagnostics, operating theatres, laboratories, administration and support staff. It is also noted that patients opting to be treated privately must also pay the consultant fees associated with their treatment. The cost of a private patient stay is largely influenced by these staffing and operational costs rather than the room type occupied.

The statutory hospital charges under Section 55 that apply for such an episode of care is set out in the following table and depends on the category of hospital, duration of stay and whether the accommodation was provided in a single or multi-occupancy room. It should be noted that all in-patients opting to be private are liable for these charges irrespective of the designation of the bed or ward in which they are accommodated.