Dispute between Rotunda Hospital and HSE escalates over public consultants contracts.
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Pat Kenny Show. With Timber Living Log Cabins. Saturday and Sunday from 10am. On Newstalk. Conversation that counts.
But first, yesterday, board members of the Rotunda Hospital defied the health minister by refusing to accept a government order to halt public-only consultants caring for private patients. This dispute could see HSE funding for the Rotunda withdrawn. Now, joining me to talk about all of this is Dr Peter Boylan, former master of the National Maternity Hospital at Hollis Street and former chairman of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Peter, good morning. Good morning, Pat. What do you make of this unseemly row?
It's unnecessary, I think, and it is unseemly, as you say.
What is the dispute between Rotunda Hospital and HSE about?
Jenny Walsh, the current master of the National Maternity Hospital, was on yesterday on the radio, and she said that what needed to happen is a conversation. And I agree 100 percent with that. There needs to be a conversation. But the most important voices that need to be heard are the voices of the women who are going to be pregnant or who are pregnant at the moment or who have been pregnant and get their opinions about the accessibility of private and public health, maternity health care. The women who are affected mostly by all of this.
Now, many women, professional women and other women, will have private health insurance, whether it's supplied by their employer at a discount or whatever, or whether they scrimp and save to pay for it themselves in order to secure private health care. Now, in a normal situation, if you've got something that might help you jump the queue, you've got a gallbladder operation, it's not urgent, but you can have it now if you're private. You might have to wait if you're public. Babies don't wait. They arrive when they arrive.
Why did the Rotunda Hospital refuse the government order?
So people might question the need for any private health care because you're going to be seen if you're pregnant and about to deliver. You will be seen.
You will be seen. One of the advantages of having a number of consultants on a private contract is that they are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, obviously within limits of holidays and all that sort of thing.
What are the implications of withdrawing HSE funding?
So you will have a group of consultants, and Sean Daly of the Rotunda made that point, who are available at any hour of the day or night, bank holiday weekend, Christmas day, whatever. for any catastrophic emergency that may arise in obstetric care. And obstetrics is different insofar as, as you say, you can't wait. Things happen unexpectedly. Emergencies, life-threatening both to mothers and babies, happen 24 hours a day in obstetric care. It's no respecter. You cannot plan for an obstetric emergency. They just happen. And so it's very important to have available a cohort of experienced obstetricians. That's one of the advantages of having a number of consultants available. Now, you will also have a consultant who is available just for the hospital in general who may not have any private practice or any private patients at that time.
but they may be overwhelmed. You may have two emergencies or it may be a very complex emergency. And if you have the availability of other consultants then who have private patients, well, then you can call them and they will come in and they do come in.
So just to clarify, you're saying that... Patient A is having an emergency. Patient A is not going private, but is a public patient. Meantime, the on-duty public consultant is busy with another emergency, maybe an abruption or something like that, that really demands instant attention. And you're saying there may be no one to look after patient A who's not insured privately, but a private consultant will make him or herself available to cope with that emergency. Yeah.
Absolutely. Yep. And that's what happens. Now, the problem with only having public consultants on call on a public only contract is when they're off call, they're off call. That's it. They're not available. Period. So they may go out for dinner. They may have a few glasses of wine. They may whatever go away for the weekend.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:48
2
What is the dispute between Rotunda Hospital and HSE about?
0:48–1:52
3
Why did the Rotunda Hospital refuse the government order?
1:52–2:14
4
What are the implications of withdrawing HSE funding?
2:14–7:06
5
How do public and private obstetric care differ?
7:06–10:32
6
What are the advantages of having private consultants available?
10:32–10:37