Hospital and Medical charges in Accident&Emergency

[Megan]

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.

I think if she had an address in the republic she would have had to pay the A&E fee. So its not true to say she is entitled to free treatment unless she had a medical card here.
I mention Dundalk because she had a thread here discussing moving out of Dublin and her last thread said she had decided to move to Dundalk.

 

[elefantfresh]

I can't help you clubman! I got a receipt for the 60e and a little note telling me when to come back and that was it! Luckily i'm not too up with the ins and outs of the hospital and its functionality. But i guess you're right, maybe it is a little odd. My ankle is better though and thats the important thing )

 

[Vanilla]

We didn't even get asked for our VHI details until 4 months after the arrival of Vanilla Junior II, but then after giving the details we received a receipt both from the hospital and details of the payouts from VHI within a few weeks.

 

[ClubMan]

Did you go semi-private? If so was there some excess that you had to cover yourself and did they ask for this up front as a sort of non refundable deposit?

 

[Guest127]

Megan I take your point but it obvious northerngirl only has to give her parents' address and shes home free. they won't know or care where she's really residing. as previous posts said a northern ireland driving licence will probably do the trick. dundalk and newry are about 11 miles apart and will have a motorway standard dual carriage way next year. not motorway as there are apparantly too many openings on an off it. speed cops will have a field day on this stretch next year. cheers

 

[Gordanus]

However, should you ever be unfortunate enough to have a nervous breakdown, you will be treated for free and that includes your medication. The psychiatric service is medieval - but completely free of charge.
Wonder what this says about our priorites?

 

[liteweight]

Diabetics also get their treatment and medication free. Asthmatics, however, do not despite the fact that sufferers are increasing at an enormous rate...particularly children.

 

[Vanilla]

ClubMan- we were private, but in a public hospital, so any extra costs, such as the private room were covered completely by VHI. The extra obstetricians fees we had paid before the birth. The VHI also paid a small fee to the obs, an inpatient consult and pathology tests, an overall figure of approx €1400.00. No cost to us. We had paid €1600 in private obs fees beforehand.

 

[CMCR]

However, should you ever be unfortunate enough to have a nervous breakdown, you will be treated for free and that includes your medication. The psychiatric service is medieval - but completely free of charge.
Wonder what this says about our priorites?

I don't think this is quite right - psychiatric services are not free in every hospital or for everyone. It is important to distinguish treatment in public and private facilities. If someone seeks treatment in a private psychiatric hospital in Ireland - then the cost of that treatment is not free and you (or your insurance company) are obliged to pay the full cost of that care.

If someone voluntarily admits themselves to a public psychiatric hospital/unit (and they do not have a medical card) I think they would be subject to the normal in-patient or out-patient public hospital charges.
I don't believe that such treatment is free - but I will check with Dept. Health and Children on this.

I would imagine if someone is non-voluntarily admitted to a public psychiatric hospital/unit then they are under the care of the HSE and are not subject to in-patient hospital charges, but they may be subject to long-stay charges, depending on their length of stay.

[broken link removed] indicate that on 31 March 2006 a total of 3,389 people were resident in psychiatric units in Ireland, 22% of whom were non-voluntary.