Hospital co-location plan faces more delays

THE PLAN to build co-located private hospitals across the State could now have another hurdle to clear, following a complaint to the Competition Authority.

The Competition Authority received a complaint in recent days from a Limerick-based consultant obstetrician who has asked it to investigate what he claims will be a monopoly situation created by the building of one of the co-located hospitals on the grounds of Limerick Regional Hospital.

The Beacon Medical Group hopes to begin construction of the Limerick co-located hospital in the first quarter of next year. It received planning permission for the development earlier this year and two subsequent objections to the granting of planning permission for the hospital, which were lodged with An Bord Pleanála, were ruled invalid.

Dr Gerry Burke said yesterday he lodged his complaint with the Competition Authority on the basis that the development will lead to a situation where patients in the area with health insurance who wish to avail of private care will have no choice but to purchase it from a single for-profit provider.

The agreement between Beacon, the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Department of Health to build the co-located hospital effectively establishes a monopoly, he claims. "This is anti-competitive and dangerous for consumers. The medical literature contains ample evidence that for-profit hospitals provide consistently poorer quality care at higher cost and with higher mortality rates for a range of medical conditions," he said.

He said he expects the Competition Authority to study carefully any agreements between the HSE and the backers of the private co-located hospital.

"Competition implies multiple buyers and sellers in the market. We will have multiple buyers but a single seller," he said.

Michael Cullen, chief executive officer of the Beacon Medical Group, said he didn't believe the complaint carried any merit.

"Everyone who goes into a public hospital that has a co-located private hospital can elect to be treated privately or publicly, therefore I don't believe that his complaint carries any merit whatsoever," he said.

He added that there were many studies in the literature discounting Dr Burke's claims in relation to the cost of and level of care provided in for-profit hospitals.

"Therefore we have participated in a Government tender and are not really concerned about somebody who is quite obviously politically motivated," he said.

Private co-located hospitals are due to be built on the grounds of a number of public hospitals as part of a Government initiative, announced in 2005, to free up 1,000 private beds in public hospitals.

Asked to comment on the complaint to the Competition Authority, the HSE said that following a very extensive procurement process, Beacon was the successful bidder for the co-location project at Limerick Regional Hospital.

"The HSE is satisfied that there is no issue with regard to the Competition Authority in this matter," it added.

A Department of Health spokesman said the department had no comment to make on the matter.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times