Public consultants doing private work

You are missing the point; private maternity care can still be provided by these consultants, just not in the setting in which they have a public contract. A Rotubda public only consultant could practice privately in Holles St or the Coombe!

All insurance in the field of OBGYN (whether private or public) is paid for by the state at the moment.

How is it subsidised by the tax payer, we are tax payers my wife was in a public hospital, supported by public stuff, in a public ward etc. Availing of what we are entitled to as tax payers with the extra cost mostly going towards the lead up to the birth and the attendance of our consultant at the birth. The majority of the care when in hospital during/after giving birth is under the public system as we were entitled to.

You simply want to force women to go through the public system and not be able to avail of the additional and very important supports available (to house who want/need them) by having a private consultant. Talking about a private only system is the came thing as saying you don’t want women to have the choice as firstly it’s unlikely to be made available privately and even if it was it would be unaffordable to most who are able to stretch to the additional cost at the moment. A fully private system is also likely to be inferior to the best of both worlds situation at the moment with the best of public care and expertise coupled with the addition of your own consultant

You and others who are arguing against the current system are championing inferior care and removal of choice from women.

The other consultants already have separately funded indemnity cover for their private work in the hospitals.

The same? But it is not the same as everybody else, is it.

You want all the cream of the public services, but then you also want the consultants to drop all their other public patients and come to you privately when it suits you, all because you slipped them some cash. What is the "same" about that? Its literally two tier level of care within the same ward.

The level of self importance in your posts in this thread has been nauseating.

But this also has the potential to take away from the care of women who should take priority. So if you don't pay, you get potentially neglected by virtue of the paying customer. In spite of the fact the doctor is on a public shift.

Btw, you realise the minister who has chosen to pursue this is a woman? It's not a guy making this decision and it's based on the fact this is better for the overall quality of care of all patients, not just the ones who pay.

If you were in a public sector job where the private work is occurring during your public shift that is an issue. And in this case it's a prominent problem. Btw, doing the above in the private sector or public would be considered to be a serious issue.

The reason we have a shortage of doctors in Ireland is because the medical profession restricts entry to the profession via a lower number of places in colleges than is required

We have 1,000s of students applying for medicine on the CAO each year. We have a budget surplus. We have good universities. This should be a very easy problem to solve.

We can and should be training enough doctors and consultants to ensure there are plenty for both public and private work. Ideally qualifying more than are needed to take account of any emigration and those who qualify academically, but are not suitable or change professions.

Hospitals have their own insurance and the government indemnity. Private consultants have to obtain cover up to a cap of (I think) nearly €2m. In nearly all obstetrics cases reported from court claims, the State pucks up the bulk of the cost. The purpose of the public only contract is not to stop them from doing private work but to not have them doing private and public work in the same hospital because of the conflict that arises. It’s not specifically related to obstetrics.

And none of that is precluded; what is precluded is doing it in the premises where they have a public practice. I assume you did not carry out your additional duties on your employer’s premises using their tools. Likewise, most schools would not permit grinds to be given on school premises - insurance, safe guarding and other considerations.

This has been explained to you many times, paying so you're entitled to a specific doctor while he's working for the public system is not remotely balanced. You say it's for peace of mind etc but that still isn't remotely fair on patients who can't afford to do that. To use your own words, it's becomes a conflict of interests.

You've made this point several times, but there's an explanatory memorandum of the POCC contract freely available which contradicts this assertion (screenshot below), so I'd be curious as to your source on this?

Similarly, discussion in a Dáil debate in Jan 2026 also went as far as to say POCC consultants were not permitted private practice in public hospitals:

"The Department of Health continues to implement the POCC in line with the Sláintecare vision. All consultants who switch to a POCC, regardless of specialty, are not permitted to conduct private practice in public hospitals beyond the conclusion of transitional arrangements stated within the terms of their contract. The HSE issued notice to all hospitals confirming this position in December 2025"

If you feel that way you should have participated in the years long process that came up with SlainteCare which determine the new working modalities. The hospital consultants did, accepted and signed the contract and now some of them wish to break it without penalty.

Sorry if it came across that way but that's not what I meant. When I wrote that I had in mind people I know who would be well able to afford private but they did not see any reason to go that route and were happy with the current offering in the public system.

I would also like to clarify we are not rolling in money, paying for private maternity was a significant expense for us and not just paid without a second thought.