Harney plans private sector health role

The Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Ms Harney, will signal next week that she wants public hospitals to enter into agreements with the private sector to develop additional medical facilities on their campuses.

The proposed units to be developed by the private sector on public hospital sites could include acute beds, step-down facilities or other forms of medical or treatment services.

The additional facilities would be paid for and run by the private sector with the public hospitals receiving income through rents or lease arrangements.

There would also be provision for the State to buy services from the private centres if necessary.

Sources close to the Tánaiste told The Irish Times last night that Ms Harney would use the announcement next week of health service spending plans for 2005 to send out "a new policy signal" that there should be greater co-operation between the public and private sectors in the health services.

Sources close to Ms Harney said they did not believe the State would have the capacity to fund everything required in the health service.

Ms Harney is likely to insist that private developers entering into arrangements with health boards and hospitals would have to take the financial risk involved in establishing new units and accept that if things went wrong the State would not bail them out. Those close to the Tánaiste believe that the private sector could provide various types of services that were financially viable.

They point out that in recent months the Eastern Regional Health Authority has signed a contract with the new private hospital at Beacon Court in south Dublin to provide dialysis services for public patients in the capital.

The Tánaiste is thought to believe there are certain procedures and operations which the State will always have to provide but the new policy could see the provision of necessary additional bed capacity around the country at a faster pace.

The Department of Health would take "a pragmatic view" of the public sector bed requirement once the response of the market to the new initiative was known.

In the interim, the Government would continue with its plans for investment in additional beds in public hospitals. There are already sufficient tax breaks in place to attract private investors to the hospital sector.

The Tánaiste is also understood to believe the Government will have to prioritise investment in new consultants and medical services if local communities are to accept the controversial recommendations of the Hanly report.

Informed sources said Ms Harney wanted to see additional consultants on the ground and enhanced ambulance services put in place.

Local communities would have to see these investments on the grounds before they would have confidence in the proposed reconfiguration of hospitals set out by Hanly, the sources said.