Investigation discovers delays in HSE reimbursing patients for medial treatment abroad

Patients who had medical treatments abroad have had to face a fight to be reimbursed for the costs, the Omudsman for Public Services, Ger Deering said. 

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland show, Mr Deering said they carried out a report into the matter, "because we were seeing a number of complaints coming through where a number of patients had gone abroad and had treatment done in good faith and where a mistake by somebody else had caused them to fall at the last hurdle, and finding themselves when they came back having borrowed money from family, credit unions or wherever, that they were unable to get the refund that they legitimately expected to get". 

"In some instances where mistakes were made, they were not on the part of the patient at all, it was maybe where it was a doctor had made a mistake and it was unable to be corrected," Mr Deering said. 

He said they were looking for a more reasonable approach. He said there were examples where the HSE wanted letters of referrals addressed to specific doctors, rather than EDs. There were also incidents where medical secretaries signed letters on behalf of doctors, which caused payments to be rejected, or where emailed correspondence was unsigned. 

Mr Deering said there had been too rigid a response to these instances. 

He said the delays in payment "have a very significant impact". 

"The first thing to acknowledge is that nobody wants to go abroad for treatment. People want to get the treatment as near to home. Anybody who has had treatment, or has been ill or has had surgery, they know the recovery period isn't easy... These people are doing this because they know they can't get the treatment here

"You have the pain and the surgery. Then you have the stress that goes with that. And now you could find yourself in debt as a result. In some instances people have to pay back money borrowed from family members who could ill afford to be without it," Mr Deering said. 

He said the HSE is committed to providing more information to people, upfront. "I would encourage people to use these schemes. They are very good schemes and over 5,000 people a year manage to successfully use them," Mr Deering said.  

He encourage people to inform themselves, adding that the approach of the HSE will make it easier for people.