Privatization in the Irish hospital sector since 1980

Privatization has transformed health care systems over the last several decades. This article examines trends in bed supply in Ireland between 1980 and 2015 within the context of government policy on bed provision in a system of inequitable access to care. Ireland has not published bed data on private hospitals since the 1980s, even if they comprise about one-quarter of all hospitals. However, this article presents, for the first time, annual bed data since the 1980s collected from private hospitals and used to trace the evolution of bed supply over time.