Ireland’s Private Hospitals Association have sought to ease the pressure on the nation’s public hospitals by making their beds available to patients outside of private healthcare.
The PHA, which represents 19 private hospitals in Ireland has suggested that their beds could be put to use if public hospitals are overrun – depending on the seriousness of need, and whether or not beds are available.
According to Newstalk, CEO of the PHA Simon Nugent said:
“Well, what we’re saying i, if I’m running admissions in a public hospital, and I’ve a lot of pressure for the beds, then I should be looking at all of the beds that are available in the Irish system, to see whether if maybe there is an available bed in the private hospital down the road.”
“But because if there is then we could send somebody down there who could be perfectly well treated. It’s a question of just looking at the beds, but really we don’t talk about these things as much as we should in Ireland.”
Ireland’s public hospitals currently have hundreds of patients who are forced to sleep on trolleys due to overcrowding and insufficient staff.
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