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IRELAND HAS PAID out more than €150,000 to individuals accessing overseas health services in the past two years, according to new figures released by the HSE to TheJournal.ie.
Since the start of June 2014, Irish citizens have been able to travel abroad to other EU member states to avail of medical services, with the HSE picking up the bill.
Different to the ‘travel abroad scheme’, the Cross-Border Directive is not limited to patients accessing treatments unavailable to them in Ireland, or for which they would face a delay in receiving.
The UK and Poland are the two most popular destinations individuals have travelled to access healthcare.
What have people been travelling for?
The two main areas that people have travelled abroad for have been orthodontics, a field of dentistry commonly associated with fitting braces, and orthopaedics, an area that includes hip replacements, knee surgery and joint reconstruction.
In the first seven months of the programme a portion of €29,264 was paid out to individuals travelling to Poland and the United Kingdom for orthopaedics.
Between January and March of this year this figures almost doubled, with part of €52,662 being paid out to patients accessing the UK healthcare system.
This figure jumped again in the second quarter of this year, up to €71,941 paid out to patients travelling to the United Kingdom for orthodontics and orthopaedics.
So far a total of €153,868 has been paid out to patients availing of other EU healthcare systems.
Due to data protection, the information on countries of destination and treatments received refer to situations where more than five individuals have travelled to a certain country for a certain treatment.
As such the specific destinations and types of treatments for a substantial number travelling outside of Ireland for medical treatment is not specified.
How does this work?
Under the current system anyone who obtains a referral letter from their GP is able to avail of the system.
This allows them to them to travel to an EU country of their choosing and avail of healthcare available up to the value of what would have been spent on their treatment within the HSE.
Anybody coming here?
The number of EU citizens travelling to use the HSE could potentially be zero.
The figure is so low as not to register in the statistics when data protection is taken into account.
In June, The Irish Times reported that there had been concerns within the HSE that the programme was a “high-level risk” that could have serious implications for the health budget.
In a report released earlier this month, it was found that some national governments had been attempting to put blocks in place to individuals coming into their healthcare system or going to other systems to receive care.
It was found that six countries had not paid out anything under the initiative since its introduction at a European-wide level in October 2013.
In response to a query from TheJournal.ie, the Department of Health stated that it was “too early” to comment on whether or not the scheme had been a success.
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The public service will finally bankrupt this country once and for all. The money just isn’t there to meet their demands. Unless the Government can raise money through taxing the private sector workers or raising corporation tax, there is no way this money can be paid. Then again a Government desperate to get re-elected are capable of doing anything to hold on to power. The unions are well aware of when the best time to declare war is.
@jo mixon: It’s the Consultants on big money who are draining the system not the hardworking nurses imo.
@ianglen: And why is 1 in 5 consultant jobs unfilled?
Perhaps you should campaign for further pay cuts for consultants ?
ANd any that dont like it can go off to Canada/Australia.
@jo mixon: Weel . They found the money to give the banks a 30 year tax write off.
@jo mixon: And there’s way too many clipboards managers as well. Morale isn’t good among hospital staff atm.
@ianglen: anyone who believes this is an idiot.
@jo mixon: yep the public service ie people who live work and spend in this country as unlike nama bondholders banks developers tax exiles and the other fuxxers who have had free run protected by government ask my hole merry xmas fg trolls
@ianglen: actually..healthcare workers are are team, we work together to care for our patients and it is an insult when ignorant comments such as this are made. I am an NCHD and work 80+hour weeks. I will leaving Ireland in July to Canada…leaving my family and friends in Ireland..this is not for money, but for a decent work life balance and a better system. I will be supporting my nursing colleagues as they strike. The system needs to change and the public needs to stop pointing fingers at those healthcare workers in it; we all work hard to do our best in a system stretched beyond its limits.
Duties above their original description. Bloody unions will co.e up with any inventive way of saying we want more money . Black hole of a health service. Cost multiples of the bus in Manchester and services the same amount of people where is the logic.
@john s: exactly, wont fix or go in any way to solve the mess that is the HSE and the inefficiences in that system which results in suffering for everyone
People blame consultants. Consultants are amazing, not when you have to fork in 150 euro for a consultancy,but when your life is in their hands. They are people that fix people. They face more decisions in a week, than a bank CEO and get paid less. I would hate their job.
This problem is on repeat now, Wage Inflation. We have an artificial property bubble that is driven by lack of supply. It is the source of all our ills at the moment. Money is the means to make things more affordable, but the driver is affordability.
Insurance, mortgage rates, house prices, we’re like an out of shape flabby tiger.
It will tank the economy, it tanked it before. It depends on Government action and leadership they need put about 2Bn into a NAMA style build project. This will just get worse and the strikes and protests will continue. We all sign into a private/public economic stability model, where the government delivers affordable housing as a core tenet and freely fully opens sectors such as insurance etc., mortgage rates. This public worker, private workers is nonsense, we all live here.
Remember the New children’s Hospital is running close to a billion over cost which also has to be paid the whole system is f##} up
Follow a consultation, Dr, Nurse and hca for a week at work and tell me that 99% don’t deserve a good wage compared to all the other fu#k wits in the HSE and other government departments.
Leo our leader was in charge of Health for a while and did SFA and
watch as he performs the same act again as the unions walk all over him
Blame the unions, blame the consultants, blame the public service. Such other and total rubbish.
The problems have been pointed out repeatedly by the unions and the nurses and the unions and even the patients and have been ignored by government for years,
The hard working private sector pay for everything. Wrong guess what public servants pay tax as well.
The HSE and Dept of Health is top heavy and technically in the dark ages as regards records and such. The actual part of the system of curing and helping people works well its the admin and management that costs so much.
Doctors should do doctors work and managers manage the business. At times its the other way around.
Take it apart and start again is the only solution
Britain spends 125 billion with 70 million people we spend 20 billion with 4 million people. I suppose some Numpties are going to tell me that Britain are spending too little ???? Doing the math that means Britain should spend a 2.2 trillion. Scary isnt it ????
@Marcus o Dhonnghaile: £127 ( 142 billion euro) billion spend is on England alone ( pop 55 million).
Irish population is 4.7 million HSE spend is 17 billion.
Not sure where you are getting the 2.2 trillion?
I find this scary, but for different reasons.
have your say