{"id":485843,"date":"2026-06-06T08:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T08:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/485843\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T08:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T08:03:09","slug":"rotunda-hospitals-clash-with-coalition-over-private-maternity-care-deepens-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/485843\/","title":{"rendered":"Rotunda Hospital\u2019s clash with Coalition over private maternity care deepens \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rotunda hospital<\/a> has doubled down on its defiance of a Government order to stop public-only consultants treating private patients in a challenge to public health policy.<\/p>\n

The board of the biggest and busiest maternity hospital in the country held an extraordinary general meeting on Friday, where the governing power declined to back down from its decision to allow public-only consultants <\/a>continue offering private care<\/a> on-site. <\/p>\n

It came after Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill cast doubt on the Rotunda\u2019s clinical indemnity insurance \u2013 the crucial State-funded legal protection without which a maternity hospital could not afford to operate. Carroll MacNeill also suggested the maternity hospital could owe refunds to women who received private care from consultants who were on public-only contracts. <\/p>\n

The number of consultant obstetricians on public-only contracts at the Rotunda <\/a>is small, with just one doctor delivering two private patient babies under this model between January and March of this year. But it is understood the Rotunda is defying the Government on a point of principle, as part of its fight to try to keep private maternity care in publicly funded hospitals. <\/p>\n

Two out of three of the Dublin maternity hospitals <\/a>have now sought an exemption from Sl\u00e1intecare, the policy designed to remove private practice from public hospitals, after the National Maternity Hospital said on Friday that it also wanted a \u201cderogation\u201d for its consultants from public-only contracts. <\/p>\n

The Rotunda has been given until Monday <\/a>to share a detailed audit with the Health Service Executive of the private work carried out by public-only consultants at the hospital, including how much money the Dublin maternity hospital has made from such care. <\/p>\n

It is understood that in a brief letter to Carroll MacNeill on Friday, the board of the Rotunda advised that it was planning to co-operate with the HSE\u2019s request for information. <\/p>\n

At the meeting on Friday, it is understood that the board was critical of what it felt were threats being issued against the hospital via the media. The HSE has already said it may trigger a process under its contract with the Rotunda that could result in the maternity hospital\u2019s funding being withheld or withdrawn. <\/p>\n

Carroll MacNeill said she expects \u201ccompliance\u201d from the hospital, which both the Government and the HSE say does not have the authority to give public-only consultants permission to offer private care. But the Rotunda board <\/a>has now sought a meeting with the Minister to \u201cexplain the rationale and impact\u201d of its decision to allow doctors who signed public-only contracts to continue offering private care. <\/p>\n

The board decided as far back as September 2024 that it would be giving its consultants permission to go against the public-only nature of their new contracts, which came into effect in December 2025. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn all of its deliberations, the Board\u2019s overriding priority is to ensure that every patient receives the best possible care, regardless of whether they are a public or private service user,\u201d it noted in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Board has written directly to the Minister for Health … to seek a way forward to resolve this issue for the common good of all patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Health <\/a>has not yet responded to the Rotunda<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Carroll MacNeill said she felt it was \u201cegregious\u201d that \u201cinstead of putting the resources into making sure that all women are getting the same care, led and with a consultant on site in the way that they\u2019re capable of being rostered\u201d, the Rotunda was proceeding with a plan to only have certain consultants on call for private women.<\/p>\n

One big insurer has already confirmed that it will not be processing claims from public-only consultants at the Rotunda who are offering private care. <\/p>\n

A VHI spokeswoman said the insurer \u201cwill not process claims for private activity in a public hospital where consultants hold public hospital-only contracts\u201d. Laya Healthcare also said that \u201cwhere a consultant has entered into a public-only contract, we would not expect private fees to arise\u201d. <\/p>\n

Irish Life Health did not respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rotunda hospital has doubled down on its defiance of a Government order to stop public-only consultants treating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,1421,43,629,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-485843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-jennifer-carroll-macneill","tag-news","tag-rotunda-hospital","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}