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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 7 Mar 1963

Vol. 200 No. 6

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Limerick Regional Hospital: Tipperary Patients.

11.

asked the Minister for Health whether the list of hospitals to which patients can be sent by dispensary doctors in North Tipperary includes the Limerick Regional Hospital; and, if not, why.

I have had inquiries made from the Tipperary (NR) County Council which is the health authority concerned.

I take it from the Deputy's reference to patients of dispensary doctors that he has in mind patients in the lower income group availing themselves of free general medical services under Section 14 of the Health Act, 1953. Where it is necessary to refer such patients for hospital treatment the normal arrangement applying in North Tipperary is that they should be referred by their doctor to the appropriate hospital operated by the health authority. In any case where the consultants employed by the health authority consider it necessary, the patient would be referred by them for treatment in an extern hospital. Limerick Regional Hospital may not be availed of for the provision of free treatment for patients from North Tipperary except in the circumstances I have mentioned or, of course, in an emergency.

Any patient in the lower or middle income group who of his own choice, secures admission to Limerick Regional Hospital would obtain from his health authority the same benefits as apply in the case of a patient entering any other approved extern hospital of his choice, viz. a contribution towards the cost of maintenance and treatment.

Will the Minister state if he sent out a list of approved hospitals to which any county council, including the North Tipperary County Council, are entitled to send people of their own choice?

No; I have not sent out such a list.

The county manager in North Tipperary stated on last Tuesday that a list submitted by the Minister for Health did not include the Regional Hospital in Limerick.

Is the Deputy sure that it was not the other way around —that the manager said it did not contain it?

I am referring only to the manager's statement that it was not included by the Minister for Health.

No. I think, perhaps, the Deputy is being misled by the fact that the manager, I understand, answered on the occasion referred to that the Limerick hospital was not then on the approved list of extern hospitals for medical practitioners in North Tipperary. The approved list is a list approved by the health authority, not the Minister for Health.

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