Labour warns hospital developers

Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte has warned developers who are in talks with the Health Service Executive (HSE) about plans to build new private hospitals on State lands that the projects will be scrapped if his party and Fine Gael are elected to government.

Mr Rabbitte said the Government had no political mandate to proceed with the private hospital plans. He challenged Minister for Health Mary Harney not to sign contracts for the new hospitals before the election.

However, a spokesman for Ms Harney said last night that potential developers should not pay any heed to "a blatantly political statement" by Mr Rabbitte.

The spokesman said the Government and the HSE were committed to proceeding with the private hospital plan. Under Ms Harney's plans, up to 1,000 beds will be provided for fee-paying patients in eight new centres to be developed on State land adjoining existing public hospital facilities. The new beds will replace existing facilities for private patients in public hospitals.

The Government has argued that the move will provide additional capacity for public patients in a faster and more cost-efficient manner than expanding public hospitals.

The secretary general of the Department of Health, Michael Scanlan, signalled at a recent Dáil Public Accounts Committee meeting that the timetable for the new hospitals could see contracts being signed with developers next month.

Mr Rabbitte's comments have been seen as a warning to developers, who have spent considerable sums on drawing up bids for the new hospitals, that the future of the projects is not assured.

However, a spokesman for Mr Rabbitte said that the party accepted that if contracts had been signed before the election they would have to be honoured.

Mr Rabbitte said the contracts for the new facilities "should not be signed in the dying days of a government".

"The Harney plan to build super-private clinics on scarce public lands, financed by generous tax breaks for investors, is a serious policy error. It is expensive, it is bad for patients and it is wrong.

"It is a backdoor policy for which the Minister has no mandate.The Government have no mandate for this folly. They campaigned on an entirely different approach to health. Now they are pursuing a narrow ideological agenda which will leave a lasting imprint on our health service to the detriment of patients and taxpayers.

"I am also urging private developers to think carefully about signing up, just weeks before an election, to a system that the alternative government is committed to scrapping."

However, a spokesman for Ms Harney said a policy of developing private facilities with a view to complementing public hospital facilities and enhancing care for all patients had been set out in the health strategy in 2001.

"Potential developers should not pay any attention to this blatantly political statement. The Government and the HSE are committed to proceeding with the development of these private hospitals."

He said the timetable for the development of the new hospitals was on target.

Under the plans, investors in the new hospitals will receive tax breaks. The Government will also have to reimburse public hospitals for more than €80 million lost annually in private income when the beds for fee-paying patients are removed.

The Government has said that developers will have to pay the full economic cost of leasing State land for the new hospitals.