Co-location plan for hospitals shelved

THE CONTROVERSIAL plan to build a number of private hospitals on the grounds of public facilities has effectively been ended. The plan to develop the co-located private hospitals had been championed strongly by former minister for health Mary Harney.

Co-located hospitals were originally earmarked for Beaumont and St James’s hospitals in Dublin, at Cork Regional Hospital and at Limerick’s Mid-Western Regional Hospital.

The consortiums behind the projects had been granted a number of deadline extensions to put financial arrangements in place. The most recent deadline ran out at the end of March.

At a meeting on Thursday, the Health Service Executive decided not to grant any further extensions.

Ms Harney had argued that co-location represented the fastest way to add 1,000 beds to the public system. Under the plan, private facilities in public hospitals would have been converted to public beds once co-location was up and running. Critics said co-location would have exacerbated the two-tier hospital system.