Hospital and Medical charges in Accident&Emergency

N

Northerngirl

Registered User
Messages
83
I recently went my local A&E Dept. for medical treatment of a sprained ankle. I told the Receptionist my GP was in the north, gave my parents address in the North, though I work in Dublin, was told I would not have to pay anything and treated immediately with X-ray, etc; Meanwhile if I had given an adress in the Republic I would have needed to pay to be seen by a medic. I was informed that if anyone from an EU country seeks emergency treatment, it is free. Is there something very unfair about this system, whereby those of you paying tax and National Insurance have to pay for basic emergency treatment in your own country??
As someone who lived in the UK, with access to free GP service, hospital stay, etc; on the NHS, I an angered that Ireland cannot provide a basic free health service,astonished there is not a national outcry & resent having to pay medical fees - luckily I can go across the border.Hospital doctors are the highest paid in the EU - I wonder why??
 
Moved from Good Deals, Bad Deals and Consumer Issues.

See :
In-patient charges in public hospitals

If you are in a public ward under the care of a consultant for treatment and you remain overnight, you are receiving in-patient services.
If you are admitted to the hospital under the care of a consultant where you do not require the use of a bed overnight and your discharge from hospital is planned, you are receiving day services.
The charge for in-patient/day services is 60 euro per day up to a maximum of 600 euro in a year. The charge does not apply to the following groups:
  • medical card holders
  • people receiving treatment for prescribed infectious diseases
  • people who are subject to "long stay" charges
  • Children up to six weeks of age, children suffering from prescribed diseases and disabilities and children referred for treatment from child health clinics and school board examinations
  • People who are entitled to hospital services because of EU Regulations
  • Women receiving maternity services
In cases of excessive hardship, a Health Service Executive Area may provide the service free of charge
Click to expand...
 
does this effectively mean that the only EU people charged for hospital a+e treatment are from paddyland?
 
As far as I know (a) yes (b) we too can avail of free public health services in other EU/EEA countries using our EHICs.

To be honest I would have expected Northerngirl to be asked for her EHIC before charges were waived.
 
ClubMan said:
To be honest I would have expected Northerngirl to be asked for her EHIC before charges were waived.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify Clubman, there is a special arrangement between the UK and Ireland regarding public health services. You don't need a European Health Insurance Card to get necessary healthcare while on a temporary visit in Ireland or the UK if you are a national of either country.

It is enough to show proof (a driving licence, passport or other similar document) that you are ordinarily resident in either country.
 
One in every 20 people who work in this country works in the health service.
How many more do you want?!
 
See page two [broken link removed] for details. It's the HSE annual report for 2005. They employ 67'000 directly and fund another 33'000 indirectly. From what I can see this does not include non-medical card list GP's or privately funded hospitals so the figure might be higher.
 
As a result of this experience will Northerngirl be moving to Newry instead of Dundalk.
 
why? she is entitled to free treatment in both north and south. heads she wins, tails she wins. probably better treatment in daisy hill than the louth I agree and as for the lourdes..... overcrowded, overworked, overrated.
 
Any idea how long it takes a casualty bill to arrive? Had an x-ray one night in July and haven't heard anything from them.
 
In my experience the billing/administration departments of hospitals (in Dublin anyway) are all over the place and can easily forget to bill you, bill you twice, send threatening letters before even sending the invoice or a final notice etc. We still have a complaint outstanding with the Rotunda dating back to the birth of our son last year when they (for the second time - we had another similar incident a few years ago) sent us letters threatening legal action for unpaid items in spite of never invoicing us in the first place. €500 remains outstanding but the ball is in their court regarding following up on our complaint and invoicing us properly but they don't seem bothered.
 
Beaumont invoiced/billed me subsequent to a visit to A&E even though I paid on the spot. A phone call appeared to sort it out, i.e. I have heard nothing since.
 
CCOVICH said:
Beaumont invoiced/billed me subsequent to a visit to A&E even though I paid on the spot. A phone call appeared to sort it out, i.e. I have heard nothing since.
Click to expand...

I asked if I could pay on the spot in Beaumont but I wasn't allowed. Maybe because it was late at night.
 
not just public hospitals either. daughter had 4 wisdom teeth out in bons in glasnevin last year. absolutely no complaints about either the consultant or hospital , both excellent , overnight stay only and she was up and running the next day and back in college. no pain and not swelling etc. she's in bupa's most basic plan and it didnt cover the full cost, which I was aware of but when the actual invoice arrived 3 months later it was a bit threathening in tone ie if you dont pay by xxx we will pass it on to a 3rd party for collecting, which I thought was a bit rich for the first invoice. I appreciate they probably had to wait till bupa paid their share before they knew the difference and a phone call to accounts was met with a very friendly response.
 
Cahir said:
I asked if I could pay on the spot in Beaumont but I wasn't allowed. Maybe because it was late at night.
Click to expand...

Strange. It was after midnight when I visited. Around a year ago. Paid by credit card.

(And no, it wasn't a drink fuelled incident........)
 
cuchulainn said:
when the actual invoice arrived 3 months later it was a bit threathening in tone ie if you dont pay by xxx we will pass it on to a 3rd party for collecting, which I thought was a bit rich for the first invoice.
Click to expand...
Interesting - that's more or less what happened to us with the Rotunda in the first case. They sent a letter threatening legal action having never previously invoiced us and after the full amount due had been covered by private health insurance anyway. I complained, they investigated and they apologised and put it down to an unprecedented administrative error which would not happen again. A few years later we're back for ante-natal care and delivery of our baby, they forget to charge us the €500 deposit when we start the semi-private care (even after I explicitly asked them on our initial visit if we need to pay anything) and a few weeks after the birth of our son send us a snotty letter telling us that we should have paid this and that it was now overdue. Enclosed was a hand scrawled invoice which clarified nothing. I complained about their lack of a proper invoice (which might be needed for claiming MED1 tax relief), their snotty letter and the fact that this was the second time this sort of thing had happened. They said they'd get back to us but never did. The €500 remains outstanding but they don't seem capable of or bothered to deal with the matter.

Oh - I also complained about them automatically registering us as RC without asking!
 
When i broke my ankle i had to pay 60e in Vincents on the day, give them my BUPA details and that was it. I never paid another penny even with all the physio and 3 different casts and seeing 3 or 4 doctors along my journey of recovery. I have no idea really who paid for all of that. I mean, if i didn't have BUPA would i have had to pay for it? I'm sure not everyone could afford to do that. Anyway, i'll keep paying my health insurance just in case!
 
elefantfresh said:
When i broke my ankle i had to pay 60e in Vincents on the day, give them my BUPA details and that was it. I never paid another penny even with all the physio and 3 different casts and seeing 3 or 4 doctors along my journey of recovery. I have no idea really who paid for all of that. I mean, if i didn't have BUPA would i have had to pay for it? I'm sure not everyone could afford to do that. Anyway, i'll keep paying my health insurance just in case!
Click to expand...
That too seems odd to me. Even where a private health insurer foots (no pun intended) the bill I would expect the patient to receive a copy of the invoice for their own records.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top