The Government's is trying "to privatise the public health system by stealth" by sanctioning private hospitals on public hospital grounds, Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny has claimed. Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent, reports.
"This is a social experiment driven by the Progressive Democrats," Mr Kenny told Fine Gael general election candidates and campaign staff at the party's ardfheis in Dublin.
"We utterly reject the Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrat plan to build private beds on public lands. It is wrong for Ireland, wrong for health and wrong for our society," Mr Kenny said.
The Government had in recent days sought to drive a wedge between Fine Gael and Labour on the issue, claiming that Fine Gael had not made its position clear.
In a joint document in January, entitled Better Health, the two parties said the Government had embarked on "a deeply flawed" approach to expanding private bed numbers on public lands using tax breaks for developers.
"The Government claims that this strategy will generate 1,000 additional private beds which will release existing private beds for public use. This strategy is deeply flawed," the Fine Gael leader said. "It marks a major expansion in for-profit medicine.
"While there is a role for private medicine, the hospital system should be based, in the main, on not-for-profit hospitals. This strategy is extremely expensive.
"The additional beds will be provided at considerable cost in terms of tax revenues forgone. These clinics will be built on public hospital lands - resources which are potentially irreplaceable."
The strategy would delay the creation of extra beds "until it is clear what specialities and regions are chosen by investors", and it would add a new element of inequality to the health service, the two parties agreed then.
Meanwhile, Mr Kenny, who will address several thousand Fine Gael delegates tonight in a televised address, said the number of MRSA cases in Irish hospitals was a national emergency.
Every visitor to a hospital, or even a GP's clinic, should be required to clean their hands using a disinfectant gel before being let in, he said, while hospital visits should be restricted to curb the spread of the disease.
The general election would be a referendum on the Government's handling of the health service, he said, adding that Fine Gael and Labour would provide 2,300 public beds over seven years.
"The general election this year will be a referendum on this Government's handling of the health services and their failure to deliver a health system that works for the public.
"After 10 years in power, the outgoing Government has failed miserably to meet the targets they set for themselves and have missed countless opportunities to deliver the type of services that the public need and deserve," he said.
Free medical health insurance for under-16s would be introduced over the lifetime of the next Dáil if Fine Gael and Labour gained power, while 100,000 extra medical cards would also be provided.
The Government, he said, had promised to provide 3,000 extra hospital beds in the health strategy document penned by the former minister for health Micheál Martin, and yet had failed to reach its targets.
"We need to get better use from our existing bed capacity, but we also need a substantial increase in the number of acute beds. The waiting will not end until additional beds are provided. It's as simple as that."
In his speech to the opening session of the ardfheis, Mr Kenny said children would enjoy "a new deal" on health issues if Fine Gael and Labour were elected, centred on State-paid health insurance cover.