IMO conference: Doctors have accused the private hospital system of "cherry-picking" particular patients and health problems at the expense of the public health sector. Dr Muiris Houston, Medical Correspondent in Killarney.
In a position paper on acute hospital bed capacity, published at its annual meeting in Killarney yesterday, the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) acknowledged that, while the private system could provide bed capacity at a faster rate, the capital allowances that enabled this to happen were a poor use of taxpayers' money.
"Priority should be given to the building of public bed capacity," the IMO president, Dr Asam Ishtiaq, said, adding that not to do so would endanger the long-term survival of the public health system.
"This is important, not just for patients, but for the future training of doctors and nurses," he said.
"Because a normal level of elective surgery is not taking place in acute public hospitals at present, training opportunities for surgeons and anaesthetists in particular are lost".
Referring to bed capacity for older people, the paper says that, despite an increase of 50,000 people over the age of 65 between 1984 and 2003, the number of public beds designated for their care has dropped from 11,190 to 9,480 during the same period.
Calling for a national review of bed capacity for older people, the IMO said long-term care for the elderly had been privatised "by stealth".
Dr Ishtiaq said older people would especially benefit from a reduction in overcrowding in hospitals. Referring to statistics showing that Irish public hospitals run at 105-110 per cent of capacity, he said: "We need to get back to activity levels that equate to 85 per cent capacity in order for hospitals to run at a safe level".
"The number of acute hospital beds in Ireland is among the lowest across both the EU and the OECD countries. In 2000 the number of beds per 1,000 population was 3.1, down from 5.1 in 1980," the IMO president said.
In a separate paper on health service funding, the IMO called on the Government to introduce the OECD system of health accounts (SHA). The doctors' organisation said there was no proper health accounting standard in the Republic.
"Social spending is included in health spending, and there is no accurate figure for the amount of money spent on private healthcare," it said.
"The perception that a black hole [in the health service funding] exists can be explained by the poor handling of policy and planning by the Government". The Government had created the black hole by rapidly increasing current spending but on an inadequate capital base.