Mater to spend €320,000 on overflow ‘private capacity’

The Mater hospital in Dublin plans to reduce overcrowding in its emergency department this winter by diverting excess patients to private hospitals.

The hospital is spending €320,000 extra on providing “private capacity” for 10 patients a week, according to its winter capacity plan for 2015/2016.

This provides for outsourcing emergency activity when demand exceeds capacity. Where a patient has been forced to wait for a long time or the demand exceeds the number of beds available, “it should be possible” to divert admissions to local private emergency care services, the plan states.

“This would free up the emergency department clinical space and reduce pressure on inpatient beds.”

The cost per patient transferred to private care is estimated at about €8,000, which the plan says compares well with the €15,000 cost of an elective hip replacement done on the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

The Irish Medical Organisation criticised the move as "bad medicine".

"Using the private sector to make up for the absence of beds in the public system is a backward step," said the chair of the IMO's GP committee Dr Ray Walley. "Hospitals like the Mater are already operating in the 'death zone' at over 95 per cent capacity, and the only solution is more beds."

All hospitals have been tasked with drawing up winter capacity plans to deal with what is the busiest time of the year in the health service.