The Government's National Treatment Purchase Fund which was set up last year to cut hospital waiting lists has been criticised by a number of hospital consultants.
The fund, which has a budget of €31 million this year, buys private treatment in hospitals at home and abroad for patients who have spent more than a year on a waiting list.
The former Clare Labour TD and consultant psychiatrist, Dr Moosajee Bhamjee, yesterday described the fund as "a nonsense", and said the money should be spent in public hospitals.
"It is a silly way of doing things. We are closing wards and sending patients abroad. Their treatment could be performed here if the money was put into employing more nurses," he said.
"They could be managed here if thing were better organised. We should be spending the money on public hospitals here rather than in private hospitals. We are spending millions on buying private care. It is a nonsense," he added.
Furthermore, he said, just one member of a patient's family was funded to travel with a patient going to the UK for treatment. "Anything could happen in theatre and you would like to have your family around you," he said.
Treatments paid for by the fund last year included removal of cysts, heart operations and investigations, varicose veins, tonsils and cataracts, as well as hernia, gall bladder and prostate operations.
Dr Bhamjee's reservations have been echoed by Dr Noel Flynn, a consultant anaesthetist at Galway's University College Hospital.
Describing the scheme as "a cowboy activity" at a meeting of the Western Health Board, he said the Government should be putting the money into public services.
He said the Western Health Board had the staff, facilities and wards to treat people on waiting lists if it was given funding. Last year 315 patients from the WHB area were treated under the scheme.
The comments from the consultants come as the fund tries to attract a greater number of referrals. Last year it failed to reach its target of having 400 people treated in the UK. Only 25 were sent.
The fund director, Ms Maureen Lynott, said the reason for the shortfall was that insufficient patients were being referred to her by doctors. While the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association rejected any suggestion its members were responsible for the lack of referrals, it appears from the comments of Dr Bhamjee and Dr Flynn that certain consultants have concerns about co-operating with the scheme.
Nonetheless, patients who have been waiting over a year for treatment can contact the fund directly to see if they are eligible. The contact number is 1890 720 820.