The Health Service Executive operates the EU Directive on Patients’ Rights in Cross Border Healthcare in Ireland. In line with practice in other EU Member States, the HSE, through the National Contact Point (NCP) office, provides information for patients on the Cross-Border Directive on its website - http://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/1/schemes/cbd/-and also by phone. The principal function of the NCP (which is the mechanism specified under the Directive for the dissemination of information on the Directive by Member States) is to facilitate exchange of information for patients concerning their rights and entitlements relating to receiving healthcare in another Member State, in particular the terms and conditions for reimbursement of cost and the procedures for accessing and determining those entitlements.
The NCP also has a responsibility to ensure that all enquirers are informed of the right to healthcare, if any, that they may have through the European legislation on the coordination of social security schemes (EU Regulation 883/04) and which may be more beneficial to them. The NCP is able to inform patients what the cost of their treatments would be in Ireland to allow them make a comparison with the costs they are being quoted for comparable treatment in another Member State.
Similar to other healthcare schemes operated by EU Member States under Community legislation, access to healthcare abroad under the Cross-Border Healthcare Directive is based on patients following public patient pathways, hence the HSE has in particular concentrated on informing the doctors who make the referrals. For example, prior to the transposition of the Directive the HSE met with the ICGP and various consultants at hospital level to inform them of the provisions of the new Directive. The HSE has also participated in an EU Patients Forum conference which was held in Dublin in April to inform patient groups of the Directive.
Additionally, the HSE is at this time actively engaged with consultants representing two specific cohorts of patients to facilitate access to certain diagnostics and treatment for which there are long waiting lists in Ireland. The HSE welcomes requests from Hospital Medical Boards to present and inform the doctors of the provision to refer patients to other EU/EEA countries for healthcare under the terms of the Directive.
