The privately-owned Beacon Hospital in Dublin has signed up to treat public patients under the safety net ‘surge capacity’ agreement with the Health Service Executive.
Michael Cullen, CEO of the Beacon Hospital said: “Following a period of positive engagement with the HSE we are pleased to confirm that we have agreed to sign a new surge agreement.
“We are comfortable that the agreement shared with us on Sunday night addresses the concerns that we had raised and are pleased to be in a position where we will work even more closely with the HSE in the days and weeks ahead.”
In a statement, the HSE said it welcomes the decision of Beacon Hospital to “join the arrangement for service provision to support our collective response to the pandemic”.
It said the arrangement “will provide support for public patients at a time when the public hospital system is under great pressure.
“We acknowledge that Beacon Hospital is already receiving patients from public hospitals and providing essential time dependent care for patients, and we look forward to working closely with them in the coming weeks.”
HSE CEO Paul Reid commented: “We are very pleased that the 18 private hospitals have now joined this arrangement, and look forward to working with them during this exceptionally challenging time for healthcare in Ireland.
“We are also happy to accept Beacon Hospital’s offer to give us the use of a mass vaccination centre. This centre has already been used to vaccinate HSE frontline workers and will prove very useful over the coming months. We are grateful for the offer.”
Last Saturday, Mr Reid had expressed “extreme frustration” at the Beacon’s decision not to sign up to the same deal agreed with other hospitals, saying the move was “beyond belief and comprehension”.