Vol. 415 No. 7
110 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health his views on the situation whereby seven months after the Programme for Economic and Social Progress agreement, hospitals have neither identified private beds nor made any definite arrangements for the identification of private patients.
The implementation of the new arrangements for access to public hospital beds is proceeding in the phased manner which was outlined to the Oireachtas when the relevant legislation was passed last May. The information on the public or private status of each patient, which is being collected in public hospitals since June, provides a basis for the designation of beds in line with the pattern of usage of the hospital concerned. My Department have worked with the health boards and voluntary hospitals on the assessment of their bed designation proposals in the light of the usage data and I will shortly be notifying each board and voluntary hospital of my decision on their proposals. In the meantime, hospitals are operating the new arrangements on the basis of the breakdown of their beds as between public and private which operated before the new legislation was enacted.
