Could co-location be a Trojan horse? Private hospitals on the grounds of public hospitals will be seen to operate with high levels of efficiency,admittedly in certain profitable specialties,in contrast with floundering public hospitals and the bureaucratic HSE. It will occur to people that the public hospitals could be managed by the managements of efficient,patient oriented private hospitals. Eventually,the government could invite tenders from private hospital groups to manage public hospitals under long term contracts.

This could be a good idea provided the government set up a rigorous inspection service to ensure quality control of medical services and to prevent unnecessary services. It would also be desirable to pay hospitals as much as possible on the basis of procedures performed,as opposed to simply dropping money into their laps.