It makes you wonder at the sanity in this country when a clause in the new consultants contracts which insists that all patients be treated as public patients when they go through A&E, regardless of whether they have insurance or not, is portrayed as "a €50m blunder".

Under the new system, no sick person is regarded as a "private" patient, a fact that has been interpreted by one insurance company as meaning they are not liable for the bills of members who opt for private rooms once they are admitted.

Prof Brendan Drumm is understandably perplexed that the insurers won't follow the logic of paying for the private facilities that an insured patient specifically asks for.

Perhaps the answer, therefore, is not to provide private rooms in public hospitals to people on the basis of ability to pay, but on how sick they are.

Everyone who is less seriously ill, both insured and uninsured, could go to public wards, while the really sick – such as cystic fibrosis patients and those who are terminally ill – could be put into private rooms .

It would be much fairer and a better use of hospital facilities, but it would also be interesting to see how long the health insurers continued to refuse to pay should their members kick up a fuss.