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Hospitals lose out over private patient fees IN THE
last four years public hospitals in Ireland have failed to collect over
?76million of revenues owed by privately-insured patients, according to
figures obtained under the Freedom Of Information Act by the RTÉ
Radio Investigative Unit.
The information shows that the worst offenders are Tallaght and St. James’s
hospitals in Dublin who have between them lost over ?21million, alongside
Waterford Regional Hospital who failed to collect ?7million.
The hospitals have acknowledged the administrative shortcomings but said
that the handwritten claims process operated by Vhi and BUPA places a
bureaucratic burden upon them, while Vhi say they pay out on 98 per cent
of submitted claims within two to three weeks.
The Minister for Health Mary Harney admitted that she believes the practice
of private fee earning within public hospitals needs to be reformed but
that this was a matter for the HSE and not her department.
music bursary
UP-AND-COMING young Dublin soprano Anna Devin has been awarded the ?10,000
RDS Music Bursary — one of the largest single bursaries on offer
to a young musician in Ireland.
The award is intended to assist a young professional musician develop
their career.
Devin who is currently studying at the Royal Irish Academy Of Music
with Colette McGahon-Tosh — plans to use the bursary to cover maintenance
and course fees for her Postgraduate Diploma in Opera Studies at the Guildhall
School of Music and Drama in London.
The singer was one of six senior prize winners at this year’s Feis
Ceoil who were competing for the award — also included were Jacqui
Connolly, Tara Erraught, Robert Farhat and Alice Nolan, all from Dublin,
along with Conor Palliser from Enniskeane, Co. Cork.
suicide prevention
THE Action On Suicide Alliance has launched a national campaign calling
on Irish political parties to pledge their commitment to implement suicide
prevention measures.
Around 500 people in Ireland die as a result of suicide while 11,000 admissions
to hospital A&E departments each year are as a result of suicidal
behaviour.
Action On Suicide Alliance represents 11 different groups working in the
area of suicide prevention and claims that many of the recommendations
in the National Strategy For Action On Suicide Prevention have yet to
be implemented because of a lack of resources and funding.
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