The Board of Tallaght hospital has agreed to allow the co-location of a private hospital on its lands.
Following a meeting today the Adelaide Hospital Society said that the Board of Tallaght hospital had "no real option" in the matter of co-location.
Director of the Adelaide Hospital Society Fergus O'Ferrall said that the crucial need for acute bed capacity at Tallaght Hospital could only be met through co-location given that no alternative scheme for public investment from the Government exists.
"It is imperative to provide up to 200 extra acute hospital beds to meet the pressing need of our patients and the board has focused upon the best arrangements to provide for our patients and our medical and other staff given the prevailing Government policy," Mr O'Ferrall said.
In a statement released today the board said that the people decided on co-location by re-electing the new Government with a mandate during the recent General Election.
"The serious reservations held by the Adelaide Hospital Society and by many other bodies about the national initiative to build co-located hospitals have been clearly voiced and placed on the public record," the Statement added.
If a tender is successful the Adelaide & Meath Hospital incorporating The National Children's Hospital at Tallaght will in future only have public beds as the current private beds will transfer to the co-located private hospital.
The board also said that doctors who treat patients in the private hospital will be the same doctors who work in the public hospital.
In addition the private hospital will not be able to "cherry pick" patients as it will be required to have the same casemix as the public hospital except where the public hospital has a designated national speciality.
Labour spokeswoman on Health, Liz McManus, said that the decision, although disappointing, came as no surprise.
She said: "This was a decision made under duress as the board of the hospital had come under intense pressure from both the HSE and the Minister for Health, Mary Harney.
"We now have a situation where the board of a major hospital has been forced to make and will have to implement a decision that it does not agree. This is no way to run a health service," Ms McManus added.