Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 June 2020
674. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Health if service level agreements have been completed between each of the private hospitals signed up to the Covid-19 contract and the HSE; if copies of same can be made available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9226/20]
View answerThe Government published its Action Plan in Response to Covid-19, on March 16 2020. In anticipation of the projected surge in Covid-19 cases and the expected impact on the health care system, a major part of the Action Plan was to urgently ramp up capacity for acute hospital care facilities. A critical element of the strategy was to put in place an arrangement with the private hospitals to use their facilities as part of the public system, to provide essential additional acute hospital services for the duration of the emergency. The terms of the arrangement reflected the expected Covid-19 pandemic at time of signing.
Under the heads of terms of the agreement between the HSE and the private hospitals, the HSE has access to 100% of the capacity of those hospitals for an initial three-month period. The arrangement with the private hospitals was reviewed at the end of May and the Government decided that the existing arrangement should not be extended beyond the end of June. It has however mandated the HSE to negotiate a new arrangement with private hospitals which would provide the HSE with full access to private hospital capacity in the event of a surge of Covid-19 and separately with ongoing agreed access, to enable the HSE to meet essential and elective care needs.
The HSE have advised my Department that they are working with their legal advisers and continue to engage intensively with the private hospitals to finalise the SLAs.
