{"id":649048,"date":"2026-10-17T08:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T08:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/649048\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T08:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T08:10:08","slug":"consultants-private-healthcare-in-public-settings-has-ceased-hse-review-finds-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/649048\/","title":{"rendered":"Consultants\u2019 private healthcare in public settings has \u2018ceased\u2019, HSE review finds \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Consultants carrying out private healthcare in public settings has \u201cceased\u201d in line with the rules of their new contracts, a review by the Health Service Executive<\/a> (HSE) has found.<\/p>\n

Private care provided by public-only consultants contract (POCC) surfaced as an issue during the summer, when Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill<\/a> clashed with the board of the Rotunda Hospital<\/a> in Dublin.<\/p>\n

The Minister threatened the hospital\u2019s funding and indemnity if it refused to comply with the terms of the public-only contract as consultants were still treating private care while on public contracts.<\/p>\n

The board of the hospital eventually backed down.<\/p>\n

However, the revelations sparked concerns among senior health officials and politicians that the practice of private work could be continuing elsewhere in the health service.<\/p>\n

Mair\u00e9ad Ryan, of the national human resources office within the HSE, said an initial \u201cverification exercise\u201d regarding the implementation of the POCC had concluded, with a specific focus around \u201ccompliance with clause 24\u2033, which relates to private practice in public settings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis exercise found that previously reported non-compliant service arrangements had discontinued, and all regions provided assurance that private practice in public settings had ceased in accordance with the terms of the contract,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0How can runaway spending in the health service be reined in?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Ryan\u2019s comments were made in response to a parliamentary question from Social Democrats<\/a> health spokesman P\u00e1draig Rice, who called for \u201cmore than assurances\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to know exactly what steps are being taken to ensure that every public hospital is compliant with the terms of the POCC,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis process must be rigorously managed and governed to ensure that reform isn\u2019t blocked by legacy culture or any historic arrangements.\u201d<\/p>\n

The POCC was introduced in 2023 as a key part of the Sl\u00e1intecare<\/a> reforms, which seeks to provide universal healthcare. <\/p>\n

Under the new contract, senior doctors in hospitals received higher salaries in return for the elimination of rights to treat fee-paying patients in public facilities.<\/p>\n

Both hospitals and doctors received money from payments made \u2013 predominantly by health insurers \u2013 in relation to private patients treated in public hospitals. <\/p>\n

The previous contract allowed consultants to have up to 20 per cent of their workload in public hospitals as private, with consultants being given a transitional period of two years to wind down the private practice.<\/p>\n

A majority of consultants are now on the new contract, with the HSE stating this is having an impact on the executive\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n

The elimination of private medical practice in the public system has contributed to hospitals facing a projected income shortfall of nearly \u20ac145 million, the HSE said last month.<\/p>\n

The impact is particularly being felt in maternity care as there are no private maternity hospitals, meaning women will gradually lose to option of private maternity care in the State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Consultants carrying out private healthcare in public settings has \u201cceased\u201d in line with the rules of their new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,80148,521,85,46,28962,291871,107657],"class_list":["post-649048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-health-service-executive-hse","tag-healthcare","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jennifer-carroll-macneill","tag-rotunda-hospital","tag-slaintecare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}