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Report of the Independent Review Group established to examine private activity in public hospitals
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Ireland. Department of Health, 'Report of the Independent Review Group established to examine private activity in public hospitals', [report], Department of Health, 2019-02
Abstract
Description
public acute hospitals, leading to an expansion of the public system’s ability to provide
public care. The Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Healthcare acknowledged
that removing private care from public hospitals would be complex and it proposed an
independent impact analysis of the proposal to identify any adverse and unintended
consequences that may arise for the public system.
Our task is to analyse this proposal to identify the implications. As part of our work,
the Review Group undertook a consultation process, which involved publicly inviting
submissions from interested parties, meeting a number of stakeholders and visits to
two hospital sites. We conducted a detailed analysis, examining the scale and nature
of activity in our hospital system and matters relating to the people who deliver our
health services. This included an analysis by the ESRI of the nature, level and role of
private practice in public hospitals. Additionally, work was done by the Department of
Health’s actuarial consultants in relation to the impacts on private health insurance.
We also investigated the international experience, including inviting the WHO-hosted
European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies to present an evidence briefing
and requesting the OECD to conduct a desktop exercise looking at how dual public
and private practice is organised and regulated in a number of OECD countries and
the opportunities and challenges these countries are facing.
The Review Group believes that the long term removal of private activity from public
hospitals can be achieved over a transition period. This could commence through
immediate action on the consultant contract in parallel with capacity enhancements
and increased funding for the expected increase in public activity.
This report presents our findings.
Date
2019-02
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Department of Health