Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of delays in processing applications and reimbursing payments under the cross-Border directive. I will provide two examples. I know of one person who applied last December. He was advised that he had a knee problem and would have to get an operation. He got a scan done here in the South of Ireland. When he went up to the North he was told that it did not look like a knee operation was necessary. A full body scan was carried out and it was found that three vertebrae had fused; it was not his knee but his back. He had to apply for a change of code because different procedures are paid under different codes. It took from 23 July until 9 September for that application for a change of code to go through. It finally went through just before the consultant emailed him for his pre-operation consultation. The operation was carried out only last week. He has been waiting for reimbursement since June, when he was in hospital in the North. He rang up and was told that he could not be given a date for reimbursement. This scheme was brought in on the basis that people would be reimbursed within 30 days. People are getting credit union loans. This particular gentleman has been out of work for so long while waiting for his operation that he is on the pension rate of pay. He could not afford to pay the €15,000. His brother took out a loan of €15,000 from the credit union to pay it.

He is paying back €150 per week and still awaiting reimbursement. In another case of mine a young man who had an operation in March is still waiting to be reimbursed.

There is no point in setting up a scheme if it cannot be relied on. If a patient is told that he or she will be reimbursed within 30 days but must wait for 90 or 100, it causes major financial problems. The HSE will have to get its act together. I acknowledge there are problems, including staffing problems. If there are no staff, they should be put in place. There is definitely something perverse about the public health service being run down, with 194,000 additional outpatients since 2015, representing an increase of 50%. The report on this issue came out last week. There are 18-month waiting periods for operations. Patients are being forced into this. Taxpayers' money is being pumped into private hospitals in France, Germany, Spain, Britain, the North and here. There are Spanish public patients transferred to Ireland to private hospitals under the cross-border directive. I read an article that stated €2.5 million was paid in 2016 to private hospitals and €12.3 million last year. In the meantime, we are not even filling vacancies. Consultants have gone through the interview process. The figure for Galway is 11 and for Donegal, 100. There is a deliberate EU policy of running down public services and forcing taxpayers to line the pockets of private hospitals.

I would like the Minister of State to outline that there is something happening, that the extra staff are being put in place and that the Government is committed to reimbursement within 30 days in order that when patients obtain loans, they can make a commitment to pay them back in that timeframe and not be left high and dry, as is happening.

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