Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

149. To ask the Minister for Health his views on whether it is fair for haemochromatosis patients in rural areas to be billed €80 per venesection or phlebotomy therapy in hospitals when patients in St James's hospital, Dublin 8 are not charged; the reason it is not a free treatment in all hospitals; if he will address this discrimination and make it a free service to all haemochromatosis patients that do not hold a medical card; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9199/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Health Act 1970 (as amended) provides that all people ordinarily resident in Ireland are entitled, subject to certain charges, to public in-patient hospital services including consultant services and to public out-patient hospital services. Under Section 52 of the Health Act 1970, as amended by Section 12 of the Health (Amendment) Act 2013, 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.

My Department is currently considering the issue of the application of the public in-patient charge of €80 for venesection in Acute Hospitals as well as broader issues in relation to the treatment of patients with Hereditary Haemochromatosis. A meeting involving relevant personnel in the HSE and the Department of Health is being arranged in that regard.