Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Health if he will consider transferring responsibility for the provision of hospital patient transport to the providers of the rural transport programme, as this might result in considerable savings in the sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37059/12]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The cost of non-emergency patient transport, in particular for outpatient (OPD) appointments, has been escalating in recent years and non-essential provision has been identified as an area suitable for budgetary control. Accordingly, criteria have been restricted considerably in recent times and a uniform approach is being rolled out across the health regions.

In general, patients are expected to make their own way to and from hospital and OPD appointments, using private or scheduled public transport. The exceptions are for dialysis, cancer (radiotherapy and chemotherapy) and post-operative transplant patients. In these cases, the patient's appointment or treatment should be directly related to the condition. Transport may also be provided where, in the clinician's view, the patient would be unable to make the journey without clinical assistance or where the patient must be transported on a stretcher. I am satisfied that significant savings will arise from the uniform national application of the criteria for non-emergency and non-stretcher based patient transport.