Rotunda to provide HSE with private work audit by today

The Rotunda Hospital must provide the HSE with an audit of all the private work being carried out by consultants at the hospital who are on public-only contracts by today.

The deadline was set by Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

The row erupted following a hearing last week at the Oireachtas Health Committee, when the Master of the Rotunda Professor Sean Daly said the practice was continuing, despite a direction that it should stop.

In March 2023, the "public-only consultant contract" was introduced across the health service as part of the Sláintecare initiative

70% of consultants signed up to the contracts, which meant no private work was to be allowed in public hospitals.

Consultants who switched from the old contract to the new public-only one were given until the end of last year to make that transition.

There are no private maternity hospitals in Ireland so any obstetric private care is provided in public hospitals.

There are 32 consultants providing maternity care in the Rotunda. Fourteen of them are on the public-only contract.

Speaking on Friday, Ms Carroll MacNeill said she wanted confirmation from the Rotunda that this practice had ended.

She also suggested that women who had paid for the service should be recompensed.

She warned the Rotunda Hospital that it did not have permission to allow consultants on public-only contracts to continue doing private work in the hospital.

Confidence in Master of Rotunda 'unseemly' - Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin has said it has confidence in the Master of the Rotunda Hospital and that the ongoing row between the Minister for Health and hospital management is "unseemly".

Sinn Féin's health spokesperson David Cullinane called for both sides to meet to fully resolve the dispute.

"There's a lot for this hospital and the Master of the hospital and the management of the hospital to discuss with this minister," he said yesterday.

"Any row or standoff in my view on contracts is unseemly it's in nobody's interest. It’s not in the interest of the hospital and it’s certainly not in the interests of women whether they are public or private patients availing of services in any hospital."

He said the standard of care in the Rotunda was "absolutely outstanding" and he said his party supported public-only contracts as well as public care and public hospitals.

Mr Cullinane said he supported some flexibility in the contracts, while they were being negotiated, but the core of the contract was that "these are well paid consultants and well-paid contracts to do public work".

He said they must be held to that.