Update: Hospital Care in Public and Private Sectors – Health 30th September, 2014

 
  *  To ask the Minister for Health the comparisons he continues to make between the costs associated with hospital care in the public and private sectors with a view to ensuring achievement of the maximum efficiency and cost benefit for the public sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

                                                                         Bernard J. Durkan T.D.

 
REPLY.
It is not currently possible to undertake direct comparisons between the cost of hospital care in the public and private sectors because neither my Department, nor the HSE, have access to private hospital cost data.  However, steps are being taken to help ensure that public hospitals have a better understanding of the costs involved with the provision of services.  Such an understanding is essential for hospitals to operate effectively under the new funding model for the health service called Money Follows the Patient (MFTP).  Implementation of MFTP commenced in January and the new model is being rolled-out in phases over the coming years.

A new Patient Level Costing (PLC) system is being implemented in public hospitals to help them to analyse and interpret their operating costs.  Although a pilot PLC project has been underway since 2010, the PLC function must now be embedded across all hospitals. This will require investment in skills and also in PLC IT systems and feeder IT systems to improve the collection and analysis of cost data.  The data provided by the PLC pilot is being used in conjunction with the current speciality costing methodology to set prices for services and this will continue when rolled out to more hospitals.  

The HSE published an Invitation to Tender for a PLC System, to include knowledge transfer, in July of this year with a closing date of 26 August.  The tenders are currently being evaluated and this process is expected to be completed by October.  Assuming a successful outcome, it is intended to establish a contract for the provision of the solution in the fourth quarter of this year.  

I believe that the combination of the MFTP funding model and a better understanding of costs will help to deliver improved efficiency and effectiveness in public hospitals.