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Ireland's takeover of private hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic

In Ireland, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a total of 230,599 cases of infection as on 20 March 2021, and 4323 deaths. Although the Irish hospital network has not been overwhelmed, it has faced pressures, with a total of 13,313 persons hospitalised, including 1402 admitt...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Mercille, Julien, Turner, Brian, Lucey, Donnacha Seán
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8167255/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34001297
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1744133121000189
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author Mercille, Julien
Turner, Brian
Lucey, Donnacha Seán
author_facet Mercille, Julien
Turner, Brian
Lucey, Donnacha Seán
author_sort Mercille, Julien
collection PubMed
description In Ireland, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a total of 230,599 cases of infection as on 20 March 2021, and 4323 deaths. Although the Irish hospital network has not been overwhelmed, it has faced pressures, with a total of 13,313 persons hospitalised, including 1402 admitted to the intensive care unit. Out of caution, in spring 2020, in anticipation of possible surges in hospitals in light of international experience, the Irish government reached an agreement with private hospitals to access their capacity for three months to alleviate pressure on the public system, as part of its comprehensive response to the pandemic. This piece analyses the agreement with private hospitals, based on the legally binding Heads of Terms of the agreement, which were signed by the parties, along with publicly reported details from media reports and Oireachtas (parliamentary) committee hearings. We argue that although the new relationship could, in theory, have paved the way to the nationalisation of the whole hospital system, in fact, the experiment is best interpreted as a lost opportunity to integrate and simplify Ireland's hospital system.
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spelling pubmed-81672552021-06-01 Ireland's takeover of private hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic Mercille, Julien Turner, Brian Lucey, Donnacha Seán Health Econ Policy Law Perspective In Ireland, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a total of 230,599 cases of infection as on 20 March 2021, and 4323 deaths. Although the Irish hospital network has not been overwhelmed, it has faced pressures, with a total of 13,313 persons hospitalised, including 1402 admitted to the intensive care unit. Out of caution, in spring 2020, in anticipation of possible surges in hospitals in light of international experience, the Irish government reached an agreement with private hospitals to access their capacity for three months to alleviate pressure on the public system, as part of its comprehensive response to the pandemic. This piece analyses the agreement with private hospitals, based on the legally binding Heads of Terms of the agreement, which were signed by the parties, along with publicly reported details from media reports and Oireachtas (parliamentary) committee hearings. We argue that although the new relationship could, in theory, have paved the way to the nationalisation of the whole hospital system, in fact, the experiment is best interpreted as a lost opportunity to integrate and simplify Ireland's hospital system. Cambridge University Press 2021-05-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8167255/ /pubmed/34001297 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1744133121000189 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Perspective
Mercille, Julien
Turner, Brian
Lucey, Donnacha Seán
Ireland's takeover of private hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic
title Ireland's takeover of private hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full Ireland's takeover of private hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_fullStr Ireland's takeover of private hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Ireland's takeover of private hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_short Ireland's takeover of private hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_sort ireland's takeover of private hospitals during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Perspective
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8167255/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34001297
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1744133121000189
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