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HSE National Director of Acute Operations Liam Woods said the current agreement between HSE and private hospitals that is due to expire in August is being evaluated.
Woods told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that while the HSE was alert to the fact that the expected increase in Covid-19 cases had been handled to date, he was eager that this was the case, but the risk of an increase at some date still remained.
Additional capacity (in private hospitals) was needed to avoid further risks to the community, he said.
The current arrangement with private hospitals was working well, and some services, such as cancer treatment, had been moved from public to private settings.
Under the current system, all patients are “public first” and their care is evaluated based on clinical need.
Those who wish can access private care, he said. Having private hospital capacity “gives us the opportunity to support elective care.”
Woods also said that HSE was working with the National Treatment Purchase Fund to ensure that people on waiting lists could access care in private hospitals if they wanted to.
Currently, hospitals operate under parallel streams of care, both Covid and non-Covid, and there was evidence that such a system was still necessary, he said.
There was concern that patients with suspected stroke or heart attack were not attending emergency departments with a drop in attendance levels of 35-40%.
Under the parallel care system, staff relied on PPE and more space to protect patients and staff, he said.
“We will see fewer people in the same places.”
Woods said there would be more virtual clinics that were very popular and successful.
“We are trying to complete as many episodes of care in the community.”
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