€36.5m spent sending public patients to private hospitals in Northern Ireland
Ken Foxe
The National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) spent more than €36 million sending public patients for treatment at private hospitals in Northern Ireland last year.
Payments to Kingsbridge Private Hospital North West and Kingsbridge Private Hospital Belfast totalled €36.5 million in 2025, although that was down from €43.5 million the previous year.
The figures also show spending at Beaumont Hospital fell from €6.8 million in 2024 to just €183,000 last year.
This followed the suspension of NTPF funding after it emerged the Dublin hospital had incorrectly billed for patients seen in routine public clinics.
Overall, the NTPF spent €226.8 million on inpatient and outpatient services for waiting list patients last year, a fall of €8 million compared to 2024.
Around two-thirds of the money – €156.2 million in total – was spent at private hospitals with a further €70.6 million paid to public hospitals.
Data released under FOI shows that the Mater Private Hospital Dublin was the biggest earner in 2025, paid a total of €21 million from the fund.
It was followed by Kingsbridge Private Hospital near Limavady in County Derry at just under €21 million.
The NTPF paid Charter Medical €16.7 million, around €15.5 million to Kingsbridge Private Hospital in Belfast, and €13.7 million to Aut Even Hospital in Kilkenny.
Two other hospitals were paid in excess of €10 million in 2025, roughly €13.7 million to the Blackrock Clinic and €12.9 million to Mater Misericordiae University Hospital.
The largest area of spending was in orthopaedics, with payments totalling €63.9 million last year.
There was expenditure of €27 million on ophthalmology, €41.4 million on general surgery, and €26.6 million for cardiac surgery and cardiology.
Other categories of spending included €2.19 million for neurosurgery, €8.6 million for gynaecology and €5.6 million for non-cosmetic plastic surgery.
The NTPF also paid out €5.1 million for pain management treatment and €5.6 million for vascular surgery.
A spokesperson said the treatment fund aimed to maximise its budget to provide patients with “timely access to high-quality scheduled care where and when they need it.”
They said: “During 2024 and 2025, almost 450,000 public patients accessed surgery, consultant appointments, endoscopies or diagnostic scans sooner as a direct result of NTPF commissioning.”
The spokesperson said treatment was provided through insourcing for public hospitals to deliver additional treatment and outpatient activity over and above core-funded HSE services.
Outsourcing involves the NTPF paying for treatment in private hospitals for public patients.
They added: “Approximately 70 per cent of NTPF commissioning activity is delivered through outsourcing, with the remaining 30 per cent delivered through insourcing.”
