News that two consultants are seeking to carry out private practice in newly established public surgical hubs further emphasises the need to remove all private healthcare from public facilities, according to Social Democrats health spokesperson P\u00e1draig Rice.<\/p>\n
Deputy Rice said:<\/p>\n
\u201cNew surgical hubs are being established across the country to reduce waiting lists, enabling the separation of scheduled and unscheduled care.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese facilities are needed to ensure that emergency and urgent care do not crowd-out elective care \u2013 non-emergency, planned procedures \u2013 which makes waiting lists and waiting times longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cSurgical hubs are part of the wider Elective\u00a0Ambulatory\u00a0Care\u00a0
\u201cIn December, when I asked the Minister for Health if private practice will take place in these new surgical hubs, I was assured that these\u00a0facilities\u00a0will treat all patients as public.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeparately, the HSE also said in response to my parliamentary question that there are no plans for any private practice in the South Dublin Surgical Hub at Mount Carmel.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, it was reported today that two consultants are taking separate judicial reviews against the HSE, seeking the right to offer private care in new publicly funded surgical hubs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole purpose of these new facilities is to provide protected capacity for elective care. The idea that a private patient could gain faster access to a surgical hub runs counter to the aims of Sl\u00e1intecare and only reinforces a two-tier health system.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery effort must be made to ensure that these new surgical hubs are used exclusively to address the long waiting list for access to public elective care.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis latest development comes in the wake of a HSE internal audit revealing that oversight and management of the implementation of the Public Only Consultant Contract (POCC) have been seriously lacking.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unacceptable that three years on from the POCC being introduced, there is still no formal national governance and reporting system\u00a0in place. Only now is the Minister for Health waking up to this problem and developing a national governance framework.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe uncontrolled mix of private and public healthcare cannot be allowed to continue. We need to know exactly when these new measures will be in place to police the POCC.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd while much stronger enforcement and governance of the POCC is needed, this alone will not address the problems in our health service.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to see far greater investment across all grades in our health service to address unsafe staffing levels, not just in our hospitals but in the community. Reorientating healthcare services so that people can access most of their healthcare locally through primary care teams is a cornerstone of Sl\u00e1intecare. This seems to have been largely forgotten, or ignored, by the Minister.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Minister cannot just pick and choose which Sl\u00e1intecare reforms she is interested in if she wants to deliver the transformation envisioned in the 2017 plan. She must commit to all its reforms because they are interrelated and interdependent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the only way we will deliver a high-quality public health service for all.\u201d<\/p>\n
June 12, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" News that two consultants are seeking to carry out private practice in newly established public surgical hubs further emphasises the need to remove all private healthcare from public facilities, according to Social Democrats health spokesperson P\u00e1draig Rice. Deputy Rice said: \u201cNew surgical hubs are being established across the country to reduce waiting lists, enabling the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,726,642,7,691],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-hse","category-padraig-rice","category-press-release","category-slaintecare"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n