Galway Bay fm newsroom – Galway is being cited as a perfect example of how greater partnership between public and private hospitals could dramatically reduce waiting lists.
The Private Hospitals Association says that thousands of patients nationwide could be cleared from waiting lists and hospital trolleys through a joint public-private initiative.
The ‘waiting list capacity initiative’ would involve staff and equipment being used in the evenings and weekends to reduce waiting lists and take pressure off emergency departments.
It’s using the Galway Clinic in Doughiska as an example of how effective such a plan could be – citing 500 urology patients seen last year who had been waiting for up to three years on public lists.
The P.H.A. says that previous efforts to outsource lists to private hospitals have had mixed results, which it’s attributing to the short-term, ad-hoc nature of such projects.
Speaking on this programme, Chief Executive Simon Nugent says that thousands of beds in the private system are devoted to elective procedures.
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