John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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135. To ask the Minister for Health the ethical rationale and legal basis for the recurring levying of a day inpatient charge for ongoing venesection treatments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3758/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Health Act 1970 (as amended) provides that all people ordinarily resident in the country are entitled, subject to certain charges, to public in-patient hospital services, including consultant services, and to public out-patient hospital services. Under the Health (In-Patients Charges) (Amendment) Regulations 2008, a person who has been referred to a hospital for an in-patient service, including that provided on a day case basis, will have to pay the statutory daily charge, currently €80 per day, up to a maximum of €800 per year. On this basis, where venesection is classed as a day case procedure, and is not carried out in an out-patient setting, the public in-patient charge applies.

The issue of the application of the public in-patient charge of €80 for venesection for Hereditary Haemochromatosis patients in Acute Hospitals is currently being considered in my Department.