First private hospital projects identified

Fee-paying facilities: The Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney has indicated that the first of the proposed new facilities for fee-paying patients to be built by the private sector on the grounds of public hospitals could be developed in Limerick and Waterford.

Ms Harney said there were also plans for such developments at three hospitals in Dublin - St James's, Beaumont and the Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown.

Under plans announced by the Government in the summer the proposed new private facilities would free up to 1,000 beds currently occupied by fee-paying patients in public hospitals.

Investors behind the development of the planned new private facilities on the grounds of public hospitals will qualify for tax breaks.

These tax breaks for private hospital developers, which were introduced by the former Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy, are currently being reviewed along with all such incentives by the Department of Finance in advance of December's budget.

There has been speculation that the Government could limit such tax breaks to particular areas where it believes that private hospitals are necessary.

The Government believes the transfer of private patients out of public hospitals to the new facilities will go a considerable way towards implementing the target set in the Health Strategy of providing 3,000 additional acute beds by 2011. Around 800 public beds have already been provided in acute public hospitals.

Ms Harney told the Dáil that the new private beds would be located "in Waterford and Limerick, where plans are fairly advanced, and in Dublin at St James's Hospital, Beaumont Hospital and the James Connolly Memorial Hospital, Blanchardstown, which all have plans".

"The matter is one for the Health Service Executive to advance, considering the overall needs of particular hospitals and the situation in each area. We do not want to displace existing private hospitals so the process must make sense at a local level as well," she said.

The Tánaiste said the Department of Health and Children, in conjunction with the Health Service Executive, would carry out a new review of public capacity requirements in the acute hospital sector "in light of the developments since the health strategy was published and the progress of the initiatives I announced in July". The last such analysis was undertaken prior to the launch of the Health Strategy in 2001.

Ms Harney has faced strong criticism in the Dáil in recent weeks from the Labour Party over the proposed development of a new private hospital on the grounds of Connolly Hospital. The party has claimed that a proposed extension of the public hospital has been shelved to make way for the new private sector development.

The Tánaiste has acknowledged that she met medical consultants and developers regarding the plan.

Correspondence seen by The Irish Times shows that management at the hospital wrote to the Tánaiste, seeking approval for such a new development. It is understood that management said that such a development would provide a clear distinction between facilities for public and private patients at the hospital.