The healthcare company BUPA wants to meet the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, to discuss a £105 million proposal to invest in the public hospital system. BUPA is seeking a public/private sector venture, for a share in income generated from private patients.
Mr David Gray, chief executive of BUPA Hospitals Ireland, yesterday said a meeting had taken place with Department of Health officials to discuss the proposition. BUPA had made the approach. "We have had it in the past in relation to infrastructure projects such as roads and toll bridges. In a desire to extend that we responded to the Government's strategy to see if there was an opportunity there to work with the public sector," he said.
A report in yesterday's Sunday Tribune said BUPA, which is a separate company to the health insurance group, was offering to finance the construction of new private wings at some public hospitals. The company would like a deal to keep a share of the £80 million plus which fee-paying patients pay each year for private facilities in public hospitals. A Department of Health spokesman said officials had met the company "as a matter of course" but refused to say if the proposal had been discussed.
Mr Gray said plans were at a preliminary stage. The deal would release hundreds of beds used by private patients in public hospitals. "Obviously this would have an effect on the waiting lists by releasing considerable resources."
It is understood the company received an interested response from Department officials and they hope to meet Mr Cowen to advance discussions. Private facilities in a number of the public hospitals are poor compared to private beds in private hospitals.
Mr Gray said BUPA was the largest provider of nursing home care in the UK, as well as the largest hospital group, with 36 hospitals. "It is part of BUPA's desire to expand into healthcare provisions overseas." The company is understood to have spoken to a number of hospitals individually and received a positive response, but it would prefer to work out a common framework with the Department. The hospitals would have a role in determining what services would be offered in the BUPA-controlled private facility.
Mr Gray said that if the forthcoming White Paper on health insurance recommended charging the patient the full economic cost of private beds in public hospitals, it would be a big challenge to the hospitals. "You can't charge that without having the quality of service provided to match it."