Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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307. To ask the Minister for Health if an appointment can be expedited for a person (details supplied); if so, the date for this appointment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41307/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Under the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive (HSE) is required to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. Section 6 of the HSE Governance Act 2013 bars the Minister for Health from directing the HSE to provide a treatment or a personal service to any individual or to confer eligibility on any individual.

The National Waiting List Management Policy, A standardised approach to managing scheduled care treatment for in-patient, day case and planned procedures, January 2014,has been developed to ensure that all administrative, managerial and clinical staff follow an agreed national minimum standard for the management and administration of waiting lists for scheduled care. This policy, which has been adopted by the HSE, sets out the processes that hospitals are to implement to manage waiting lists.

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 are available on the HSE website.

In relation to the particular query raised, as this is a service matter, I have asked the HSE to respond to you directly.