'Category B' contract puts restriction on movement by consultants between public and private facilities, writes MARTIN WALL
ONE OF the State’s largest healthcare groups is asking the Government to clarify whether consultants who are restricted to carrying out private practice at St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin can also see fee-paying patients in the adjacent St Vincent’s Private Hospital.
St Vincent’s Healthcare Group said yesterday that if consultants with “category B” contracts were unable to obtain sufficient access to beds in the private hospital, it may have to increase the number of beds for fee-paying patients in the public hospital.
Consultants with “category B” contracts are restricted to carrying out private practice – up to a maximum of 20 per cent of total clinical throughput – on their public hospital campus or in the Government’s proposed new co-located private hospitals.
In essence, St Vincent’s Healthcare Group is seeking the same arrangements to apply for consultants with “category B” contracts working in its private hospital as will be in force for doctors with similar contracts working in any of the new co-located private hospitals being planned by Minister for Health Mary Harney.
The chief executive of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group, Nicholas Jermyn, said it was “seeking to confirm with the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive [HSE] that consultants appointed under the ‘category B’ contract will be able to work their 20 per cent private practice time in the St Vincent’s Private Hospital building”.
He said the resolution to this situation was “becoming increasingly more pressing” as any consultant with rights to treat fee-paying patients in outside private facilities who retired or resigned was being replaced by those with a ‘category B’ contract with no off-site private practice rights.
A spokesman for Ms Harney said that in any consideration of the issue raised by St Vincent’s Healthcare Group with the HSE and the Department of Health, the over-riding requirement would be to ensure that the interest of the public healthcare system and patients were protected.
Mr Jermyn said that before the introduction of the new contract in 2008, more than 95 per cent of consultants held contracts which enabled them to move freely between the public and private facilities “ensuring continuity of care and a common waiting list both to the public and private sector”.
“If ‘category B’ consultants are unable to obtain sufficient access to private beds within the private hospital, then St Vincent’s Hospital Group may have to increase private beds in the University Hospital.”
Mr Jermyn said the 40 beds designated for private patients in St Vincent’s University Hospital was less than the 20 per cent figure normally available for consultants in similar public hospital facilities.
He said St Vincent’s Hospital Group was unique in that it was the only entity in Ireland where there was a public and private not-for- profit hospital on the same campus and within the same group.
Mr Jermyn said St Vincent’s Private Hospital was an integral part of the St Vincent’s Hospital Group.
He said any financial surplus generated at the private hospital was utilised by the group, which was a non-for-profit charity, to further healthcare services.