The Public Accounts Committee is currently awaiting figures which will show just how many private patients are being treated in public hospitals, by each speciality.

The committee, which is chaired by Cork North Central TD Bernard Allen, requested the breakdown of figures for hospitals across the country amid growing concerns about current waiting lists for public patients in public hospitals.

Figures for the public/private mix of patients for 2006, which were used in the 2008 casemix budget model, show that hospitals in Cork greatly exceeded the ceilings for the number of private patients treated at public hospitals for that year.

According to Deputy Allen, the current common contract states that not more than 20 per cent of all the patients treated at a public hospital can be private patients, however, for the 2006 period 45 per cent of all patients at St Mary's Orthopaedic were private patients, 39 per cent of all patients at the Mercy hospital were private patients and 37 per cent of all patients at Mallow General Hospital were private patients.

Deputy Allen said that the figures show that there is very little monitoring of the use of public facilities in public hospitals and that the data currently being awaited will give a much clearer idea of serious the problem is. "These figures come as a serious concern at a time when there are very long waiting lists for public patients. I recently learned of an 89-year-old Cork woman who has an eye problem and was told she would have to wait until July 2009 for an outpatient appointment. It is simply unacceptable that this women has to wait that long for an outpatient appointment," he said.

The Public Accounts Committee expects to receive a detailed breakdown of how many private and public patients are being treated in each department in each hospital in the coming weeks.

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