Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 December 2015
179. Deputy Bobby Aylward asked the Minister for Health why a person who has a long-term illness book is liable to pay an accident and emergency charge if this is the only avenue through which the person can access appropriate after care, due to the consultant being off for the weekend or unavailable [43290/15]
View answer180. Deputy Bobby Aylward asked the Minister for Health a list of the statutory exemptions available from hospital accident and emergency charges for children with cerebral palsy or with other long-term illness book qualifying conditions, and the locations of hospitals which facilitate same in the south-east region. [43291/15]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 179 and 180 together.
Patients who have received hospital services and who require follow-on care in a hospital setting are provided with a scheduled appointment prior to their discharge from hospital. A patient requiring unscheduled services outside of hours may access those services through a hospital emergency department. It is a statutory provision that a charge applies where out patient services are provided, under the Health (Out-Patient Charges) Regulations 2013, Statutory Instrument 45/2013. The regulations set a charge of €100 for the out-patient services. The charge shall be payable by each person who avails of the services concerned, but the charge shall only be made in respect of the first occasion the service is provided in relation to each episode of care. The out-patient charge will not apply should the visit result in the patient being admitted to the hospital as an in-patient.
Subsection 3(3) of S.I. No. 45/2013 lists exemptions from the charge for out-patient services provided. Subsection 3(3)(d) provides that the charge shall not be payable by "a child, referred to in section 56(3) of the Act, in respect of diseases and disabilities of a permanent or long term nature prescribed by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform". On the basis of the exemption in section 3(3)(d), the €100 charge does not apply where out-patient services are made available in respect of a prescribed disease or disability to a person of less than 16 years of age.
The conditions prescribed for the purposes of subsection 56(3) are set out in the Health Services (Amendment) Regulations 1987, Statutory Instrument 114/1987, as follows: "mental handicap, mental illness, phenylketonuria, cystic fibrosis, spina bifida, hydrocephalus, haemophilia and cerebral palsy."
