Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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816. To ask the Minister for Health when it is open to a person to consider treatment in another jurisdiction and be reimbursed by the HSE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35464/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Directive on Patients' Rights in Cross Border Healthcare provides rules for the reimbursements to patients of the cost of receiving treatment abroad, where the patient would be entitled to such treatment in their home Member State, and supplements the rights that patients already have at EU level. Public patients may access the healthcare they require in either the public or private healthcare system of another Member State under the Cross-Border Directive (CBD). Access to healthcare abroad is based on patients following public patient pathways, i.e. they must demonstrate they have followed the equivalent public patient pathways that a patient would follow if accessing public healthcare in Ireland. It is important to note that reimbursement is confined to the costs of the care itself and that the rates of reimbursement cannot exceed the cost of provision of the care if it were provided in the Irish public health service. Referral for care under the CBD may be made by a GP, a hospital consultant and certain other HSE clinicians. The CBD excludes certain health services, e.g. services of public health, long term care, organ transplantation, etc. All persons on public waiting lists, other than for such exempt health services, are eligible for the Scheme.

Full details of the scheme is available on the HSE website: www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/1/schemes/cbd/.