Staff working in hospitals who are injured or assaulted at work should not be paying the €100 emergency department charge under any circumstances, according to trade union Siptu.
The union sought clarity on whether staff were being charged the fee after a care worker assaulted by a patient at Tallaght hospital last week was billed by the emergency department.
It is understood the woman requested that she not be sent to A&E, as she knew she would be charged. She told her manager that other colleagues had been charged the €100 fee in similar circumstances.
The staff member told colleagues nobody had spoken up and that, in the majority of cases, they had paid the bills.
In a statement on Monday, the hospital said when a staff member has a work-related injury or sickness while at work, they first attend the occupational health department and are then referred to the emergency department.
No charge applies
“The statutory charge for the emergency department is not applied in these cases as the occupational health referral is the same as a note from GP [meaning] no charge applies.”
If staff attended the emergency department out of hours, they would be invoiced the €100 charge as “once they register it must be paid/invoiced”.
“Subsequently they advise occupational health, which supplies them with a note confirming the occupational injury. They then present this note to patient accounts which withdraws the invoice.”
It is understood that some staff members billed the €100 had gone through this process and had been refused a waiver.
After contacting the hospital, Siptu health division organiser Paul Bell said he was satisfied the hospital had, on Monday, agreed a protocol whereby staff referred to the emergency department by their line manager out of hours would not have to pay the charge.
Mr Bell said he was now satisfied a “common sense” approach was being taken in most cases. He said, however, it was disappointing that the issue had only come to the attention of the union after the recent incident in Tallaght.