Govt plan new deal with private hospitals before second wave of coronavirus

The government will seek to negotiate a new deal with private hospitals from the end of June.

The new deal will allow the state access the private facilities in the event of a second wave of Covid-19 and may see private hospitals used for non-Covid treatment by public patients.

The state took control of 19 hospitals at the start of April at a cost of €115 million a month, though the full capacity was never utilised.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he "stands over" that decision, but says that the new plan approved by cabinet today would allow "step-in" rights to take control of ICU and critical care beds if needed. Mr Varadkar said this would be needed if a second wave coincided with a bad flu season.

He said the hospitals may be used to alleviate waiting lists which have built up while the health service has focused on fighting the virus.

There's a growing backlog of people waiting on appointments and scans as we have done in the past but perhaps in a better or different way.

Rise TD Paul Murphy, however, said that the new deal would not make questions about the original deal go away.

“The private hospital deal always seemed like a rip-off, and a bail-out of the for-profit hospitals. More and more people were demanding a breakdown of the details of the hundreds of millions being handed over, and those questions will not go away. I will still be pushing for the publication of the full details of this deal, so we can see for ourselves why it was so much more expensive than the similar deal in the UK."

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