Madam, - Pat O'Byrne, chief executive of the National Treatment Purchase Fund (November 6th), makes some mistakes in his arithmetic.
The 52,000 in-patients treated in Limerick amount to 260 per cent, not 150 per cent, of the 20,000 in-patients treated through the NTPF at much greater cost (more than €850 per case).
Furthermore, the vast majority of NTPF patients would seem to be suitable for treatment as day-cases compared with only 36 per cent of those treated in Limerick. There is no comparison in the level of complexity of the case-mix.
The 29,000 new out-patients seen in Limerick amount to 290 per cent of the 10,000 seen under the NTPF. And Mr O'Byrne is well aware that in all public hospitals, the budget also covers "full episodes of care including pre-and post-operative consultations and any follow-up care required".
But, unlike many NTPF patients treated by private hospitals, patients treated in public hospitals have not had their initial consultations and diagnostic procedures carried out at another hospital.
Whatever spin Mr O'Byrne tries to put on this, the figures indicate a squandering of taxpayers' money to the tune of at least €20 million.
If the comparative case-mix data were available, we would almost certainly find that the true difference in costs is double that figure and that the NTPF may have wasted €200 million in its lifetime.
Those data are not available because the annual report of the €100 million-endowed NTPF is presented in the format of a glossy advertising brochure that avoids economic scrutiny by providing minimal information. Other than salaries, the only figure mentioned is the total spent.
The NTPF is a purchasing agency: at the very least tax-payers should be told exactly what is being spent on the various procedures. No doubt we will be told that such information must be concealed from the public by the standard public-private-partnership ruse of claiming "commercial sensitivity". Is it any wonder that the public finances are in the state they are in? - Yours, etc,