The Irish Patients Association (IPA) has warned Health Minister James Reilly thast his planned hospital reconfiguration will be meaningless if it does not help improve access to hospital care for public patients.

Minister Reilly will publish plans today for the reorganisation of hospitals into six groups, which will eventually become self-governing trusts. There will be close cooperation and sharing of services between hospitals in the groups.

Major emergency and acute services will move from smaller hospitals to larger centres, but the smaller hospitals will take on new roles.

However, Stephen McMahon of the IPA said the reorganisation will mean little to patients if issues such as the 100,000 people waiting over a year for an outpatient appointment are not tackled.

He also pointed to a recent survey by the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP), which showed that public patients in Ireland face much longer waits than their private counterparts for often vital hospital tests.

The national survey of nearly 300 GPs found that their private patients only had to wait an average of four days for an ultrasound test, whereas their public patients had to wait on average 14 weeks for this test, where direct access was available.

There were also long delays found for public patients seeking other tests such as CT scans.

Public patients facing long waits for tests