Caít Keane (Fine Gael)

I ask the Minister for Health to investigate the VHI in regard to coverage for PET and CT scans. Until this year it provided coverage for those scans but it has introduced new regulations and patients are no longer covered. An eminent medical person said it is detrimental to good patient care and PET scan use is growing elsewhere, yet the VHI is going in the opposite direction.

An eminent oncologist has pointed out that he is "constantly fighting" to get approval for these scans from the VHI and that this is "absolutely interfering" with his ability to treat patients.

One patient approached the Financial Services Ombudsman and took the VHI on. The company relented in that case and the person in question was afforded cover. Without access to these tests, patients are embarking on courses of treatment, including surgery, that are unsuitable, unnecessary, costly and, in some cases, cause trauma to the patient. All of this is happening at the behest of the VHI. Aviva and Quinn Healthcare have not taken the same position, but it may be just a matter of months before they do so, because insurers generally follow one another.

I congratulate the HSE on its decision to cover public patients for PET and CT scans. The executive is stepping up to the mark. However, a cancer specialist has pointed out:

Many cancer specialists are pushing their patients across the corridor into the public system to access the scans. This leaves the HSE to foot the bill for private patients.

Not only is this imposing an additional cost burden on the public system, it is also denying public patients their right of access to care. There are only seven PET scanners in the country, six of which are in private operation and available for use by public patients, in co-operation with the VHI, under the National Treatment Purchase Fund. Public patients are suffering as the queues get longer as a consequence of VHI pushing private patients into the public system to access this service.

The Minister must take the VHI to task in order to ensure it provides cover for people who have been paying insurance for years. I read about a man who had been a VHI customer for 40 years but had to pay for a PET scan out of his own pocket this year. That is unacceptable and it must be investigated.