The sale of the Beacon Hospital in south Dublin represents a missed opportunity for the Government to deliver on a key Sl\u00e1intecare commitment, according to Social Democrats health spokesperson R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt emerged this week that a deal has been reached to sell the Beacon Hospital to the asset management wing of the Australian owned Macquarie Group for a sum believed to be in excess of \u20ac400 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cNews of the sale comes as the Government continues to dither over the selection of sites\u00a0for the development of\u00a0two\u00a0elective hospitals\u00a0in the capital.\u00a0Four elective\u00a0hospitals \u2013\u00a0two\u00a0in Dublin\u00a0and one each in\u00a0Cork and Galway \u2013 were recommended as part of the rollout of Sl\u00e1intecare, with a delivery timeline of 2027\/28.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe proposal was based on the experience of the National Health Service in Scotland, where this policy innovation had been very successful. Crucially, in Scotland, the NHS purchased a private hospital and brought it into use quickly for elective procedures.\u00a0Arising from the success of this, they then built a second elective hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have repeatedly called for the purchase of an existing private hospital to speed up delivery of an elective facility in Dublin \u2013 a call that has been ignored by the Government.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving a dedicated elective-only hospital would\u00a0help to free up capacity in existing hospitals and\u00a0crucially would enable significant progress on\u00a0waiting lists.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the runaway costs and delayed opening of the National Children\u2019s Hospital, the Government should be well aware of the pitfalls and challenges of building a new hospital from scratch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile sites for standalone elective hospitals in Cork and Galway were announced in April 2023, we are still waiting for a decision on either of the Dublin sites, meaning the delivery targets set out under Sl\u00e1intecare are extremely unlikely to be met. This makes it all the more frustrating that the Government did not examine the feasibility of making its own bid for the Beacon Hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
February 14, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The sale of the Beacon Hospital in south Dublin represents a missed opportunity for the Government to deliver on a key Sl\u00e1intecare commitment, according to Social Democrats health spokesperson R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall. \u201cIt emerged this week that a deal has been reached to sell the Beacon Hospital to the asset management wing of the Australian owned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1288,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7,264],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-press-release","category-roisin-shortall"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n