THERE WILL BE “an escalation” if the Rotunda Hospital fails to provide the HSE with a list of public-only consultations who have been allowed to practice privately at the hospital by this evening, according to Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers. 

The contracts row has been ongoing for two weeks, with opposition parties urging Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill to meet with the board of the Rotunda Hospital to resolve the issue. 

The HSE has threatened to trigger a process that could result in a funding cut to the maternity hospital unless it complies with its legal obligations under the service level agreement.

The hospital has until 5pm this evening to provide the HSE with a list of the names of each public consultant who was practicing privately in the hospital, as well as who granted permission for this and why.

The health service has also sought the number of babies delivered by each consultant since 1 January, the number of expecting mothers currently under the private care of these consultants and the amount of money billed for and received by the Rotunda for these services so far this year.

On Friday, the Rotunda requested a meeting with Carroll MacNeill to “explain the rationale” behind it allowing consultants on public-only contracts to see private patients.

But it emerged over the weekend that the health minister would not take part in any such meeting unless the Rotunda agrees to align with the agreement.

“If there isn’t compliance, then there’ll be an escalation under the service level agreement,” Chambers told RTÉ’s Today with David McCullagh this morning.

“This has been signed up by consultants in the Rotunda and many other hospitals to deliver better, more inclusive, accessible maternity care for women and babies,” he said.

“The Rotunda can’t have an à la carte approach when it comes to contracts that have been signed by doctors in their hospital, and also they should not be seeking to circumvent what they know is very clearly a public-only contract.

“That’s why we expect compliance and we expect implementation of the public-only consultant contract.”

Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Chambers said there was a very clear transition arrangement from 2023 to the end of 2025 which gave hospitals the space to reposition their wider work stream to deliver the public-only consultant contracts before it came into effect in January.

“We’ve had strong uptake of that by doctors and we can’t have cherry picking of public contracts. This is a critical part of Sláintecare delivering a universal health system, and I support the minister in that regard.”

‘Issue’ with contract

Labour’s health spokesperson Marie Sherlock said the “threats being traded” from the government and the health minister over the past week relating to the potential for funding to be withheld or withdrawn is “not right”. 

“I think we need the stand-off to end, and we have to have a conversation take place between the board of the Rotunda and the Minister for Health,” Sherlock told the same programme. 

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She said public hospital facilities must be used for publicly provided maternity care, but said that on the other side, there is an issue in the detail in the public-only contract that must be resolved. 

She cited a clause in the contract, which says private work can be done only with the express approval of the employer – adding that whether the employer is the hospital or the HSE must be clarified.

“What I am saying very clearly now is that this needs to be fixed so that it’s not just about the Rotunda or indeed any other maternity unit, but indeed all hospitals that are publicly funded in this country.”

Social Democrats health spokesperson Pádraig Rice told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland said he welcomed the action that Carroll MacNeill had taken on the matter.

“The hospital has signed a service level agreement with the HSE and with the department. All these consultants have also signed these contracts, and they need to adhere to them, and we need to ensure that the reforms are delivered,” he said.

“Consultants are being very well paid to do public-only work in our public hospitals and I think they should do that. We cannot allow an individual hospital or an individual consultant to start to unpick the fundamental reforms for health service.”