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Hospital Staff.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 February 2004

Tuesday, 17 February 2004

Questions (306)

Seán Crowe

Question:

392 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Health and Children his views on whether the use of administrative resources in a public hospital by a consultant to deal with a patient treated privately and in a private hospital is an appropriate use of public resources; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4818/04]

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Written answers

Under the terms of the consultants' common contract, each consultant is entitled to engage in private practice within the hospital or hospitals in which he or she is employed. The extent to which a consultant is entitled to engage in private practice outside the hospital or hospitals in which he or she is employed is determined by the category of post which he or she holds. It is also subject to the consultant satisfying the employing authority that he or she is fulfilling his or her contractual commitment to the public hospitals.

Consultants who have a category two contract are entitled to engage in private practice off-site from the public hospital. Where a consultant is engaged in private practice within institutions where the managing authority is separate from the public hospital and-or the hospital is financed from private funds, then that private practice is considered as off-site.

While the particular arrangements that apply in individual circumstances are, in the first instance, a matter for the employing authority concerned, I would expect that administrative support for private practice would not be provided by the public sector, unless there were appropriate recoupment arrangements in place.

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