Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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388. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to a charge of €80 which certain hospital groups have imposed on persons with haemochromatosis requiring venesection; his views on whether it is an unjust charge which mainly affects persons who have neither a medical card or health insurance; and his plans to review the annual ceiling charge for same (details supplied) [11634/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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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.