Waiting lists: Long delays in seeing consultants could be eliminated for many public patients under a scheme being developed by the National Treatment Purchase Fund.
The NTPF is in talks with private clinics to commission pilot projects under which thousands of people waiting for their first outpatient appointment would be seen and treated by consultants in these clinics.
The NTPF confirmed that the talks are under way with a number of clinics, including the Galway Clinic, a private hospital promoted by James Sheehan, an orthopaedic specialist who was one of the founders of Blackrock Clinic.
Mr Sheehan said that under the pilot project, 500 public patients waiting for outpatient appointments for conditions which might require general surgery would be seen at the Galway Clinic. They would be seen in batches of 50 per week. If surgery was required it would be performed at the clinic.
However, Mr Sheehan said he was disappointed at the amount of work the clinic had received under the NTPF since it opened last year.
He was also critical of public hospitals in the west for not referring private A&E patients to the clinic's emergency room and of BreastCheck for not using his facilities to launch its screening and treatment programme in the West.
The NTPF was set up to purchase private treatment for public patients who had seen a consultant but were on a lengthy waiting list for surgical procedures.
It has achieved dramatic reductions in many waiting lists.
But lengthy waiting periods for an outpatient appointment with a consultant following referral by a GP are still common.
The Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney, has asked the NTPF to address this issue.
The Galway Clinic has what it calls a FastER emergency room, the first private facility of its kind in the State. People referred to the emergency room by their GPs pay a registration fee of €20 and a fee to the consultant of €100. They also pay for additional treatments such as plasters or drugs. They can claim the consultant's fee back from the VHI at the end of the year as part of their outpatient cover.
The VHI covers the excess over €125 to €310 for an individual, depending on the particular plan they have taken out.
Mr Sheehan complained that though there are frequently patients on trolleys in the A&E department of University College Hospital Galway, and though he estimates that 50 per cent of them are likely to have private insurance, nobody has ever been referred to the Galway Clinic's emergency room by hospitals in the west.
The Health Services Executive (Western Region), however, rejected Mr Sheehan's criticism saying that "the public hospital A&E departments treat all emergency patients who present for emergency treatment. It is a matter for GPs in consultation with the patient whether they choose to be referred to the Galway Clinic for emergency treatment".
Mr Sheehan also complained that the BreastCheck screening and treatment programme had still not been rolled out in the West though the Galway Clinic had the facilities to implement BreastCheck. Women were waiting nine months for a mammography in the public health system in the West, he said.
BreastCheck said in a statement that it had visited the Galway Clinic in December 2004. "The Galway Clinic said it would submit a detailed proposal to BreastCheck. To date no proposal has been received from the Clinic."