Declan Breathnach
Ceist:508. Deputy Declan Breathnach asked the Minister for Health to give an update on the implementation of the cross-border directive. [19314/16]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 5 July 2016
Ceisteanna (508)
Freagraí scríofa
The EU Directive on Patients’ Rights in Cross Border Healthcare has been transposed by Statutory Instruments No. 203 of 2014, the European Union (Application of Patients’ Rights in Cross-Border Healthcare) Regulations 2014, which came into operation on 1 June 2014, and S.I. 65 of 2015, the European Union (Application of Patients’ Rights in Cross-Border Healthcare) (Amendment) Regulations 2015, which was signed into law on 23 February 2015. Awareness of the provisions of the Cross-Border Directive has grown substantially recently, reflected in the activity in the NCP and the HSE has been asked to provide data to the Deputy directly.
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.