Dáil debates

Wednesday, 20 March 2013

Topical Issue Debate

Treatment Abroad Scheme

4:35 pm

Photo of Gerald NashGerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her comprehensive remarks on the structure of the scheme. I understand the regulation under which the scheme operates and that there are certain restrictions. It is a good, necessary scheme which has worked very well in recent years. The Minister of State said that some discretionary assistance is made available on a case by case basis but that should be made clear to applicants. They should be aware that discretion is applied, particularly to people in difficult financial circumstances because they are exclusively dependent on social welfare payments.

In the case I am dealing with, we have a set of circumstances whereby an individual is required to be accompanied by his wife. By definition, he has a chronic condition and will never be able to travel alone. The people concerned will be travelling for a week. It is not possible to survive with one small suitcase for a week, particularly if a person does not have any washing facilities. Therefore the treatment abroad scheme should take account of the real situation facing those applying for it. It is necessary to provide some resources for relatively small amounts of baggage fees which may not be a challenge for the Minister of State or myself, but may be very difficult for a person in vulnerable circumstances. The scheme helps people to get well but it should not put people into debt when they are already in a very difficult situation.

Comments

Alano Parent
Posted on 21 May 2013 8:47 pm (Report this comment)

I am pleased that Mr Nash raised this.
However I don't think the minister answered one of the most important things raised and that is accommodation.

Please bear in mind that the treatment abroad is usually to a specialist hospital in a big city such as London where accommodation close to a hospital (usually city centre) can cost anything over €200 euro per day. This often goes in tandem with long stays in hospital.

Take my daughters case. She needs treatment in Great Ormond Street hospital for Children. She will be staying for 3 nights, then left out for 4 nights and back in for another 5 nights. We have a 2 day stay every month for the next 4 months after this. Baggage wise she needs a buggy, a big bag for medicine, her pump and equipment along with another bag for her and her mother's clothes. Now my wife cannot manage pulling 2 big bags while pushing a buggy on her own so she will require me or another relative to help her. We booked our flights with Ryanair as soon as we got our admission dates and that worked out at €530 return for the first trip alone. We did not book flights home during the 4 days left out between stays due to the cost and stress in returning as soon as we get home.

My wife and I luckily had health insurance when she was born with a rare disease. Our Health Insurance Company had a policy of automatically covering any new born child of the couple covered. She however was in the care of the state anyhow at birth until she returned home after 9 months. This included 2 number 4 month stays in Great Ormond street.

When able my wife stayed with our daughter and I stayed in different parent’s accommodation every night in the larger area around the hospital. It was a first come first served basis. This was bedsit type of accommodation for one parent at a fee of around 10 pounds per night. We were very happy to have this as no way could we have afforded 8 months at 200 euro a night.
Even though I was made redundant at the time of her birth and my wife had to give up her job to care for my daughter we decided to scrape and muster the cost of her health insurance every year. Now that she has to return to Great Ormond Street for more treatment we were told by the Treatment Abroad Office to apply through our insurance first. We did this as we had it and our consultant advised us even though we met the criteria others who also met the criteria were being continuously turned down funding due to the recession, contrary to the "money does not come into any decision". Check out the news reports and figures on the fact treatment abroad funding refusals have gone up dramatically since the recession.

The insurance company in the end covered it as we met the criteria, however they did cheekily ask us
"Would we see if the HSE would go halves with them? When my response was just silence due to the astonishment of them trying to do a bargain they said "oh I was told to ask, but its fine so!"

Despite being approved we cannot avail of the patient accommodation for the nights before, and between as it is NHS publicly funded and not available to private patients. The hospital said usually parents of private patients are funded by their counties embassy. - Not Irelands though!

Therefore we now face the fact that we cannot afford for any of us to stay as the accommodation will be so expensive. We are already out of pocket because of the flights. We estimate that flight and accommodation costs will amount to at least a total of €7,030 with accommodation costing €5000.This is outside of living expense such as eating.

We hope the TAS will at least make a contribution to my daughter and wife’s flight cost which is at their discretion. This will be the minimal amount of time that my daughter will be required to stay. she may even be required to stay on for further treatment.
So clearly with are looking at crazy costs. We can hardly afford the expense of the car in and out of our own local hospital 11 miles away
We are really worried how we are going to manage additionally dismayed at why the government won't at least make some contribution towards the elephant in the room, which is accommodation costs.

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