Hospital consultants have rejected suggestions they are in some way responsible for the failure of the National Treatment Purchase Fund to reach its target of having 400 patients treated in Britain this year.
The fund, set up to buy treatment in private hospitals at home and abroad for patients waiting more than 12 months for operations, will send only 25 patients to Britain this year, well short of the target.
The fund director, Ms Maureen Lynott, said the reason for the shortfall was that sufficient patients were not being referred by doctors to her. This was very disappointing, she said, because feedback from patients indicated they were more than happy to go to Britain.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Associationsaid yesterday it rejected any suggestion its members were responsible. Its secretary-general, Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick, said consultants always accepted that the needs and decisions of their patients came first.
"If a patient wishes to be treated in the UK, consultants will and have facilitated that patient," he said.
"This co-operation does not preclude the IHCA from criticising the fact that we should have sufficient capacity in our public hospital services to treat patients with uncomplicated routine health problems within a medically acceptable timeframe.
"No amount of patchwork can hide the fact that we need a serious root-and-branch reform of our health services and that the Department of Health is particularly slow in addressing this problem," he added.
"The often-repeated commitment that any adult patient would not be on a waiting list for longer than 12 months or a paediatric patient for longer than six months by the end of this year will not be met," he said.
"There are now in excess of 9,000 adults and over 1,000 children waiting for longer than the stipulated period for procedures. That is the fault of the Department of Health and the health boards.
While sufficient patients were not referred to the Treatment Purchase Fund, the fund nevertheless achieved its 2002 target of treating 1,900 patients on waiting lists. The shortage of UK referrals to Britain meant the target was achieved at a cost of €7 million, some €3 million less than anticipated.