The Government never sought the opinion of the chief executive of the HSE Prof Brendan Drumm on its plan to allow developers to build private hospitals on the sites of eight public hospitals, it emerged yesterday.
Prof Drumm said his view hadn't been sought but he pointed out that the plan was announced shortly before he took up his job as head of the HSE.
The plan had been announced by Minister for Health Mary Harney in July 2005 and he took up his job a month later.
Asked about the plan yesterday, he said he had no difficulty with the amount of land being given over to the private hospitals as long as it didn't interfere with plans for HSE developments in future. "We've ensured that that is the case," he said.
But amid reports that he has reservations about the plan to build the hospitals on public hospital sites to free up 1,000 beds in the public hospitals, he refused to be drawn on whether or not he felt the overall plan was a good idea.
Asked on RTÉ's Morning Ireland if there were divisions between himself and Ms Harney on the plan, he said: "It's not something that is being discussed directly between myself and the Minister."
When it was put to him that he didn't give the impression the plan was a fantastic idea, he said: "Well I don't think anybody including the Minister would claim that all healthcare for paying private patients can be provided within the private sector".
He said the private health sector provides mainly elective procedures "in a controlled manner without any accident and emergency access" and that the complexity of care that has to be provided in the public service "way outstrips what can or is provided in the private health sector".
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said the only reasonable interpretation that could be put on Prof Drumm's comments was that he "has serious reservations which are shared widely among the medical profession" about the plan.
Speaking during a visit to Kilkenny, he said it was "extraordinary" that the Government "didn't even consult the most senior executive of the HSE" about a policy that is "the centrepiece of their proposals to solve the health crisis".
Legally binding agreements are expected to be signed with private developers to build the co-located hospitals at the end of May. They are due to be built at the Mid-Western Hospital in Limerick; Waterford Regional Hospital; Cork University Hospital; Sligo General Hospital and St James's Hospital, Beaumont Hospital, Blanchardstown and Tallaght hospitals in Dublin.
All the main Opposition parties have said they will scrap the plan if in power after the election.
Mr Rabbitte said it would be bizarre if contracts for these hospitals were signed at the "twelfth hour" to frustrate the will of the people which will be expressed at the ballot box about the same time. Labour in government would endeavour to "unwind any contracts that are entered into", he added.
He insisted that the Government has "no mandate to proceed with a plan which will worsen inequality in the health service, lead to cherry-picking of the most popular procedures and leave the public health service as the poor relation in a two-tier system".
Ms Harney, speaking in Killarney later, denied suggestions the co-location project was unravelling. Suggestions that Prof Drumm was not fully behind the project were also denied. She said she had a meeting with Prof Drumm in the last fortnight when the subject was discussed and he did not raise any difficulty with it.