Children of rich families will be able to jump queue at new hospital
THE new children’s hospital will have special fast-track and queue-jumping clinics for children of wealthier families.
The move has been criticised by patient advocates, who had hoped access to the hospital would be universal.
Sick children, whose parents can afford private consultants’ fees or high insurance premiums, will have their own private suites and consulting clinics in the new State-funded hospital on the campus of Dublin’s St James’s Hospital.
This week the National Paediatric Hospital Board confirmed that the long-delayed National Children’s Hospital will have a two-track treatment – public for medical card holders and private for those willing to pay extra.
The twin-treatment model is more likely to affect children with chronic or longer-term illnesses than those with acute or emergency complaints.
Hospital project communications manager Valerie Kavanagh said: ‘To meet the hospital’s obligations to provide private consultant facilities, a dedicated private paediatric outpatient clinic will be provided, which will include eight private consulting rooms.
‘Under their employment contracts, certain consultants are entitled to engage in private practice outside of their public commitment and in their hospitals. Private outpatient clinics can be held on the public hospital campus. However, such clinics must be held outside contracted hours. The new children’s hospital is therefore mandated to provide such facilities for these consultants, Ms Kavanagh added.
Last week, when the Government approved the €1bn Exchequer spend on the site, it did not reveal the fast-track treatments.
After television and radio programmes highlighting the delays in treatments for scoliosis and other chronic ailments, the major spend of public money on separate private facilities could prove a political embarrassment.
Paediatric specialists in children’s medicine and surgery are keen to retain their lucrative private practices that can provide salary top-ups of over €200,000 a year.
The move means that the political pledge of a single national medical service is now further away. Over half the population will continue to fund private medical insurance to get higher up the queue for treatments.
Spokesman for the Irish Patients Association Stephen McMahon, told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘I understood that access to the hospital was universal and that it was not to be a two-tiered system. My understanding was that it was universal access for children and I think that this needs to be clarified.’
Announcing the €1bn project spend, Health Minister Simon Harris said: ‘It is a huge step forward for the children’s hospital project, ending years of doubt as to whether it would ever be built. Today, there is no more doubt. This hospital will be built.
‘I anticipate that the new hospital, which will serve all of the children of Ireland, will open in 2021.’
He did not mention the special fast-track access for those rich enough to jump the medical treatment queues.
A shortage of doctors, nurses and therapists with specific paediatric qualifications and the large-scale emigration of health workers, means that children may face long queues for treatment when the hospital eventually opens.
‘A dedicated private clinic will be provided’ ‘Consultants can earn €200k top-up a year’