The Minister for Health has said that in future private hospitals will have to employ their own consultant staff.
Ms Mary Harney told the Dáil last night that the Government had decided that no further medical consultants would be appointed by the State on contracts that allow them to admit patients to private hospitals.
This move to abolish "category II contracts", as they are technically known, was last night strongly criticised by the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association, which said it would have major implications for the viability of private hospitals.
Ms Harney said: "It has been decided that no more category II consultants will be employed. Private hospitals must move to employing their own staff."
Last week health-service managers tabled proposals for a new contract which would see consultants appointed in future as employees who could only see public patients in public hospitals. They would have not private-practice rights.
"A public-only contract commits the individual to work on all patients that come into a specific hospital for a particular salary. There would be no incentive with regard to remuneration received for a doctor to take one patient over another, and this would be a desirable scenario," the Minister said.
There were currently 2,500 private beds in public hospitals. However, one Dublin hospital only got paid for approximately 20 per cent of the beds, although 46 per cent of these were used for private work. "This is an incredible statistic at one level," Ms Harney added.
The IHCA said last night that Ms Harney's comments were effectively bringing down a guillotine on the new contract talks before they had started.
The association said the move would have huge implications for the viability of private hospitals which, under the plan, would not be able to access consultant staff working in public hospitals.
IHCA assistant secretary general Donal Duffy said the country's 2.1 million private health insurance subscribers would have questions to ask about the implications of the Minister's move.
