Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 28 January 2021
227. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Health if private hospitals will be utilised to address the growing waiting lists in public hospitals due to the Covid-19 crisis; if contingency planning for the post-Covid-19 health crisis is taking place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4582/21]
View answerIt is recognised that waiting times for scheduled appointments and procedures have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the deferral of non-urgent elective scheduled care activity in March, April and May of 2020, on the recommendation of NPHET.
Following the termination of the original private hospital agreement in June 2020, the Government mandated the HSE to seek to agree with the private hospitals a new arrangement which would provide the HSE with access to private hospital capacity in the event of further surges in Covid-19 cases and separately with ongoing agreed access in collaboration with the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), to private hospital services to address the HSE's priority needs in providing both essential care and addressing elective activity to assist with scheduled care waiting lists.
In the context of the current surge, the HSE is recommending that only critical time dependent elective procedures are undertaken at this time due to the on-going and significant increased demand for bed capacity related to Covid-19. This decision was made arising from the rapid increase in Covid-19 admissions and to ensure patient safety and that all appropriate resources are made available for Covid-19 related activity and time-critical essential work.
The HSE has agreed a new safety net arrangement with all 18 private hospitals to deal with the current surge in Covid-19 cases and any further surges in the pandemic, if they arise within the next 12 months. The agreement provides that the HSE can access up to 15% or 30% of the private hospitals’ capacity depending of the incidence of the disease in the community or the number of Covid-19 positive patients in general or ICU beds in public hospitals. The private hospital capacity obtained by the HSE will be used to free up capacity in the public hospitals and will be mainly used for urgent, time-dependant and complex care.
In relation to contingency planning for a post Covid-19 scenario, my Department, the HSE and the NTPF are continuously reviewing waiting lists with a view to ensuring that services for scheduled care are resumed as soon as it is deemed safe to do so in line with HSE clinical guidelines.
