{"id":679894,"date":"2026-09-09T07:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T07:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/679894\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T07:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T07:11:12","slug":"irish-hospitals-income-severely-impacted-by-move-to-public-only-contracts-notes-confidential-hse-report-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/679894\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish hospitals\u2019 income \u2018severely impacted\u2019 by move to public-only contracts, notes confidential HSE report \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The elimination of private medical practice in the public system has contributed to hospitals facing a projected income shortfall of nearly of \u20ac145 million, the Health Service Executive <\/a>has said. <\/p>\n

A confidential financial report for senior HSE management, dated August 28th, says income was down by \u20ac55.9 million to date, with hospitals \u201cseverely impacted by the move of consultants to public-only consultant contracts (POCC)\u201d. <\/p>\n

In a statement, the HSE later confirmed that the full income impact of the new POCC contracts indicate a 2026 shortfall in private patient income of approximately \u20ac145 million.<\/p>\n

Under this new arrangement, senior doctors in hospitals received higher salaries in return for the elimination of rights to treat fee-paying patients in public facilities.<\/p>\n

Both hospitals and doctors received money from payments made \u2013 predominantly by health insurers \u2013 in relation to private patients treated in public hospitals. <\/p>\n

Private practice in public hospitals <\/a>will be phased out over time as consultants with contracts allowing them to see fee-paying patients retire. Private practice rights for doctors who signed up to the new public-only contract expired at the end of last year. All newly appointed consultants work under the public-only contract.<\/p>\n

The internal HSE Cost and Productivity Oversight Group report specifically says \u201cincome remains significantly challenged due largely to impact of POCC roll out\u201d in the HSE <\/a>Mid West region. <\/p>\n

The report indicated the HSE had recorded an overall deficit to the end of July of \u20ac577 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverspend is system-wide, with all six health regions reporting adverse variances. (They) range from 3.3 per cent in the West\/North West to 6.7 per cent in Dublin Midlands.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegions collectively account for \u20ac446.5 million (77.3 per cent) of variance while corporate and national services contribute a further \u20ac131.4m (22.7 per cent).\u201d<\/p>\n

The report indicates that while spending on staff for the health service secured through agencies \u2013 which is more expensive than personnel appointed through regular recruitment \u2013 had reduced, it is still \u20ac56 million more than projected.<\/p>\n

\u201cYear to date agency expenditure (is) \u20ac476 million versus ceiling of \u20ac419.6 million, an adverse variance of \u20ac56.4 million (13.4 per cent),\u201d notes the report. <\/p>\n

\u201cVariance has improved compared to the June year-to-date position (14.7 per cent). Agency spend continues to reduce. July spend is \u20ac0.82 million below June spend (with July having 31 days \u2013 23 working days) versus 30 days (21 working days) in June\u201d, the report says.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the HSE said that the new POCC contracts \u201ccontinues to be monitored\u201d but that \u201ccurrent projections indicate a 2026 shortfall in private patient income of approximately \u20ac145 million”.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe HSE received \u20ac100 million in additional Exchequer funding in 2026 in recognition of the anticipated shortfall in private patient income,” it added. <\/p>\n

At the weekend, Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers said \u201cadditional controls\u201d would be introduced by Government to ensure greater financial management of the health service.<\/p>\n

He was responding to an Irish Fiscal Advisory Council report which found that the health deficit increased from \u20ac0.4 billion to \u20ac0.7 billion in August \u2013 leaving it on track to be the second largest health overspend in more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Chambers told RT\u00c9 Radio\u2019s This Week programme: \u201cThere has been ineffective implementation by the HSE of the controls that were agreed and were directed by Government in the last number of months and I\u2019m very clear that there\u2019s going to have to be further corrective action taken within the HSE about ensuring that there\u2019s a strengthened control environment.\u201d <\/p>\n

In May, HSE chief executive Anne O\u2019Connor placed three regions \u2013 Dublin and South-East, Dublin Midlands, and the South West \u2013 in what is known as tier-three escalation, which introduced employment controls and greater scrutiny on spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The elimination of private medical practice in the public system has contributed to hospitals facing a projected income…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[10471,79,18,60,19,17,26736],"class_list":["post-679894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-budget","tag-business","tag-eire","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jack-chambers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117239840160799227","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}