Private sector responds to hospital plan

Groups of private investors are planning new healthcare facilities following recent government proposals to create 1,000 new public hospital beds over the next five years by transferring private beds into new private clinics. The private investments have also been spurred by generous tax breaks.

The Galway Clinic, which was opened last year by Blackrock Medical Partners, the group led by Dublin surgeon Jimmy Sheehan, was the first private hospital to avail of tax ...