Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I completely agree that the vast majority of EU patients prefer to receive healthcare in their own country for the reasons the Minister of State outlined. It is, therefore, a shocking indictment of the Irish health system that 1,422 applications have been processed under the directive to date in 2018 and it is only 21 June. This figure shows the dire state of the health service.

The cost incurred by the Health Service Executive under the directive to date in 2018 is €2.79 million. Since the directive came into force in October 2014, the HSE has incurred costs of €9.247 million under the directive. As such, almost €10 million has been spent reimbursing the costs of 4,615 procedures. Would this money not be better spent on improving our health system? When people who genuinely need to have procedures done have to travel abroad we still end up paying the costs. It would be far better to invest in improving the health system.

On the issue of doctors referring patients for cross-border services, while I have come across doctors who are aware of the directive, from what I hear, they have no further contact with their patients once they have been referred for treatment abroad. From speaking to constituents, there appears to be a lack of communication between consultants and patients on health services in other countries and following treatment abroad. We are in a catch-22 in that the Government must either commit to providing the healthcare services required in this country or, alternatively, it must actively promote the cross-border directive while we wait for services to be provided here.

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