The private sector in healthcare: contributing to service but not to research.

Public and private medicine has lived cheek by jowl in Ireland for many years. In Graves's time, Lyons recounts how "the vacancy at the Meath Hospital filled by the celebrated J Graves in 1821 occurred after an interchange of money" [Lyons JB (1991) 1834-1844. In: The quality of Mercer's-The story of Mercer's Hospital, 1734-1991, Glendale, Dublin, p 70]. Indeed Graves retired from the Meath Hospital aged 47 years to concentrate on his private practice. He continued to work as a consultant to the Adelaide, the Coombe and to Peter's Parish Dispensary, which was an example of how the philanthropic and the private sector worked together in the 1800s.