Number of Irish patients travelling for cross-border healthcare collapses due to Brexit

Ireland makes relatively little use of other European Union states to help clear waiting lists in its own health service, a new report shows.

The number of Irish patients approved for health treatment in other European states collapsed in 2021 compared with the previous year, according to the EU report on the cross-border healthcare directive.

The total number of Irish requests granted under the directive fell from 3,195 in 2020 to just 378 the following year.

The value of granted requests also fell, by almost 50 per cent, from €15.4 million to €7.8 million.

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Use of the scheme declined across Europe over the period, but in other countries this trend is explained by the Covid-19 pandemic. In Ireland, the report says, Brexit is probably the cause, “as the flow towards the United Kingdom as a member state of treatment was its most important flow in recent years”.

Since 2014, the directive has allowed public patients in the Republic to access healthcare in another EU state, the cost of which is reimbursed upon their return to Ireland. Although it could make a major contribution to reducing waiting lists, access problems and a lack of awareness are major obstacles.

In 2020, 2,845 of the 3,195 requests under the scheme that were granted were for treatment in the UK.

The following year, just 378 requests were granted for the remaining EU states, including 134 in Spain, 125 in Poland, 44 in Latvia and 23 in Denmark.

Just 12 patients from other member states were funded to have their treatment in Ireland, including six from Sweden.

The HSE plans to raise visibility of the directive with a new patient portal to be launched next month, which will provide information on the different treatment options available to patients, including the cross-border directive, a separate treatment abroad scheme, GP access to diagnostics and treatment via National Treatment Purchase Fund support for specific procedures.

Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt has told the HSE to “urgently examine” ways of “self-referring” for alternative treatment options.

Last April, Ger Deering, the Ombudsman, said the HSE was repeatedly refusing to reimburse the legitimate expenses of patients travelling abroad for treatment. In a report, he criticised the “unreasonable and inflexible approach” to administering the scheme.

A backlog of applicants, which reached 1,500 last year, has been blamed on staff shortages.