Private patients in public hospitals now account for one third of planned admissions to public hospitals. However, only 20% of beds are supposed to be designated for their use.
Admissions of private patients to public hospitals grew twice as fast as admissions of public patients, in 1999 and 2000. That is according to new research by the Economic and Social Research Institute, published today.
Over 45% of Irish people now have private insurance, a figure that has been steadily increasing. Ireland's hospital system operates a unique mix of public and private care, with the same personnel and facilities for both categories.
Officially, 20% of beds in public hospitals are designated for private use, but his research shows that private patients are using public hospitals more and more at planned emergency and day care level.
Using new data compiled since 1999, the ESRI's Professor Miriam Wiley shows that one third of planned admissions to public hospitals were private patients, higher than the designated number of beds available to them. Emergency admissions by private patients grew four times faster than public ones in 1999 and 2000.
She found that an estimated 14,000 more private patients were treated on a planned basis than would have been expected if just 20% of beds were available to them.
Many of the operations the private patients received were for planned procedures for which there are long public waiting lists, like cataract procedures, and hip replacements.
Professor Wiley said that it seemed reasonable to cap the proportion of private hospital beds when there is a public waiting list, and private patients should be encouraged to use private hospitals. She said that questions are raised regarding the management of existing resources, and inefficiencies in managing existing facilities.
She added that clarification of contractual commitment of hospital consultants to public patient care, whether in terms of time or other measures, is an important starting point in any attempt to level the playing field for the treatment of public and private patients in the acute hospital system.
