Co-location at a glance.
•What is it?
A Co-location is a Government policy designed to increase the number of hospital beds by 1,000. By co-locating new private hospitals on public hospital sites, it is planned to "decant" the designated private beds in public hospitals to the new private facilities, thus freeing up these beds for use by public patients.
•Why is it different?
A Until now capital projects in the public health service were funded by the public purse.
Under this scheme a private company will build and operate the new facility. The land on which the new hospitals are built will be leased from the State on a 65-year lease.
The developers can avail of tax allowances up to 47 per cent of the capital cost of building the co-located hospital.
•Where will these new hospitals be located?
A Proposals for Waterford, Sligo, Cork and Limerick have now been evaluated and the successful bidders will be announced shortly.
In Dublin, Beaumont Hospital and St James's Hospital are also close to approval, while Connolly hospital in Blanchardstown is still out to tender.
Tallaght hospital is under pressure from the HSE to decide if it wants a co-located facility or not. And while Drogheda, Letterkenny and Galway were part of the original proposal by Minister for Health Mary Harney, there is uncertainty about whether private hospitals will be built in these locations.
•How many beds will the new hospitals contain?
A The size of the co-located facilities will vary from 95 beds in Sligo to 180 beds in Beaumont and St James's Hospitals. The number of beds for each site has been calculated on the basis of the latest figures for private patient discharges from the existing public hospitals.
•When will the new hospitals accept their first patients?
A It is estimated that it will be 2011 before the first co-located hospital opens it doors, although some sources say one of the smaller proposed developments will be operational in late 2010.