The privately owned Beacon Hospital in Dublin has signed up to treat public patients under the safety net 'surge capacity' agreement with the Health Service Executive.
The Beacon had been the only private hospital not to sign up to the deal, which sees the private hospital system agreeing to provide up to 30% of its capacity to the HSE.
In a statement, it said the agreement will enable the hospital to "continue to do the significant, complex, public work that is already underway in the hospital, however this work will now be done under the terms of the new arrangement".
CEO Michael Cullen said: "Following a period of positive engagement with the HSE we are pleased to confirm that we have agreed to sign a new surge agreement.
"We are comfortable that the agreement shared with us on Sunday night addresses the concerns that we had raised and are pleased to be in a position where we will work even more closely with the HSE in the days and weeks ahead."
The HSE said it welcomed the decision of the Beacon Hospital to "join the arrangement for service provision to support our collective response to the pandemic".
It said the arrangement "will provide support for public patients at a time when the public hospital system is under great pressure.
"We acknowledge that the Beacon Hospital is already receiving patients from public hospitals and providing essential time dependent care for patients, and we look forward to working closely with them in the coming weeks."
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said he was "delighted" that the Beacon had signed up to support public hospitals.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, he said forecasts show that the surge in hospitals is due to peak "this week or maybe next week".
He warned that the situation in hospitals remains "serious" and called on the public to strictly adhere to public health measures to support healthcare workers.
Health Service Executive CEO Paul Reid said: "We are very pleased that the 18 private hospitals have now joined this arrangement, and look forward to working with them during this exceptionally challenging time for healthcare in Ireland.
"We are also happy to accept Beacon Hospital's offer to give us the use of a mass vaccination centre. This centre has already been used to vaccinate HSE frontline workers and will prove very useful over the coming months. We are grateful for the offer."
Last Saturday, Mr Reid expressed "extreme frustration" at the Beacon's decision not to sign up to the same deal agreed with other hospitals, saying the move was "beyond belief and comprehension".
Yesterday, Mr Cullen said he was disappointed with Mr Reid's comments, as they "did not accurately or adequately" reflect that the hospital is providing "significant capacity" to the public system by way of surgeries, diagnostics and ICU.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said they took this position [not to sign the agreement] because of their experience in the previous surge in April, May and June last year, saying the hospital ended up being 70% empty during that agreement, when normally would operate at 90% plus capacity.
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Mr Cullen said the issue was never about money, but about the fact his hospital had a system that was geared to operate at full capacity
He said they were only able to treat 30% of the patients they normally would, adding that a "huge number of patients did not get treated who should have been treated during that time".
Mr Cullen said the issue was about the hospital's need to be able to have operational control.
