Private hospitals agree to provide additional capacity to deal with Covid cases

An agreement has been reached with private hospitals to provide additional hospital capacity to the HSE, to deal with the surge in Covid-19 cases and any further surges in the pandemic, if they arise within the next 12 months.

Under the agreement, the hospitals have agreed to supply, depending on the incidence of the disease, up to 30% of their capacity.

The Mater Private Network Cork (MPN) is one of those providing surgical and medical treatment to a number of non-Covid public patients currently amid the worsening Covid-19 situation.

A spokesperson said that the hospital continues to work closely with the South/Southwest Hospital Group, Cork University Hospital (CUH), Mercy University Hospital (MUH), and the South Infirmary.

“Mater Private Network confirms that it will allocate part of it’s existing capacity to the HSE under a new agreement with the Government to assist in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis.

“The MPN have been leading proponents of this new style of support mechanism to support the public hospital system, building upon the lessons from the previous arrangements in Q2 of 2020, during the first Covid surge,” the spokesperson said, adding that the hospital is “fully committed” to supporting the national effort to mitigate the effects of Covid19.

Health minister Stephen Donnelly said: “The additional capacity created by this agreement is critical to enabling the public health system cope with large scale surges in the incidences of the disease.

“I would like to thank the private hospitals for their support in the national effort to deal with the current surge in the pandemic. I would also like to thank the VHI, which, at the HSE’s request has agreed to administer the scheme for public patients.”