Health Minister ‘frustrated’ with narrative around private maternity care
By Gráinne Ní Aodha, Press Association
Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has said she does not understand why the Rotunda Hospital continued to allow consultants on public-only contracts to treat patients privately.
She said she had communicated “quite directly” with the master of the Rotunda that this should not happen and that insurers were not flagging the same issue with other maternity hospitals.
“So, it really is sort of settled government policy, and I think that really is the end of it,” she said ahead of Cabinet on Tuesday.
The master of the Rotunda Professor Seán Daly told a committee that consultants on public-only contracts were still treating private patients at the hospital, despite a deadline for ending such arrangements expiring at the end of last year.
On Monday night, the Rotunda said it would cease such arrangements after a stand-off with government.
“I don’t really see why, because this was settled government policy,” Carroll MacNeill said on Tuesday.
“It was communicated very directly, privately, both last June and indeed in March. So, no, I don’t accept the case for it.
“I do think that I’m getting a little frustrated with the narrative that the only safe care is private care.
“I just don’t believe that that is true and it is an argument that is being advanced by people who have a monetary interest in perpetuating private care.
“It isn’t true of cancer treatment, it isn’t true of neurological treatment. Why is it that women should be told that they should be afraid?
“And if they’re not getting private care, and why is it that two women in the same hospital shouldn’t receive the same standard of care?
“Particularly as a woman who has been through the maternity system, I firmly believe that every woman should have the expectation of the best possible care – consultant-led, if that’s what they want – and not just because they can pay for it.
“I think we have to shift our mindsets away from what we’ve been told in the past as being the only safe option, to having an expectation and a demand that that system should be safe for everyone.”
She added: “I can’t countenance a situation in which a woman giving birth in a maternity hospital, who’s in the public system, who’s giving birth to twins, or has a risky pregnancy, doesn’t have a consultant there simply because she’s in the public system.
“That’s not right. It’s not right. And I believe in equality for all women.
“I believe in equality for every baby being born who hasn’t even come into the system, hasn’t even come into Ireland, deserves the same respect and treatment and care that anybody in the private system used to be able to do, or continues to be able to do the treatment system.”
She said that another significant issue will be the full implementation of the public-only consultant contract and said she was “disappointed” with the work practices on Saturday or extended hours.
“Now they may not always reflect the actual roster, but nevertheless, (Public Expenditure Minister) Jack Chambers and I will be putting a very significant focus on this.”
