Yesterday, board members of the Rotunda Hospital defied the Health minster by refusing to accept a government order to halt public-only consultants caring for private patients.    

The number of consultant obstetricians on public contracts at the hospitals is small, but it is reported that the hospital wishes to make a stand as a matter of principle.    

The dispute could see HSE funding for the rotunda withdrawn.    

Joining Pat for more on this was Dr Peter Boylan, former master of the National Maternity Hospital and former chairman of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists