Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I am taking the Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney.

Deputy Ferris appreciates that the issue he has raised relates to the exclusion of VHI patients from free travel for medical purposes. He has put on the record of the House certain matters as he is entitled to do, but the Minister is not in notice of those in respect of this matter.

I appreciate that Deputy Ferris has put a matter before the House wherein a patient was advised that, because he was a private patient with the VHI, he was in some sense disqualified from availing of the service. However, no distinction in law is made between persons with full eligibility or limited eligibility, or whether the patient is a public or private patient, that is, a patient with VHI cover. When a person makes use of an ambulance or other means of transport provided under this section, the HSE may impose a charge for the service. Again, I am not sure that is the point Deputy Ferris has raised this evening.

The primary focus of the ambulance service is on the provision of emergency transport for those patients with an acute medical need — the Deputy made the case that this person had an acute medical need. However, the HSE also arranges non-urgent patient transport services and examines requests for such services on a case by case basis, taking account of individual needs.

The HSE has advised that its national ambulance office, in conjunction with the primary, community and continuing care section and the National Hospitals Office, is arranging for a comprehensive review to be undertaken of the non-emergency transport needs of patients attending HSE facilities. That review will include an examination of the service delivered nationally and make recommendations that will inform its future development.

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