HSE may fund gastric band surgery abroad
However, the cost to the taxpayer of having the surgery carried out there could be up to €3,000 more expensive.
The news comes just weeksafter the HSE informed the bariatric (weight loss surgery) services in St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin, where Dr Donal O’Shea is the lead consultant, that it had used its allocated funding for this year.
He confirmed that he and his colleague, surgeon Justin Geoghegan, have begun work to “source a unit ideally suited in the UK” to do the surgery.
A HSE source said the surgery, which costs between €12,000 and €15,000 here, could cost up to €3,000 more abroad.
The HSE has confirmed that public patients, including those on obesity management waiting lists, can be referred for the surgery under the Treatment Abroad Scheme.
The surgery will be carried out in a public hospital in Britain where, “the services there are also under pressure but they will be paid to do this so it is an income stream for them and can be used to ease some of their own pressure,” said Dr O’Shea.
He said he welcomed the access to the surgery but has hit out at the apparent failure of the Government to adequately address the situation.
“There are 200 people on the waiting list at the moment and 10 more are being added every month.”
In Scandinavia there are 1,000 gastric by-passes carried out per 1 million population a year which equates to 4,000 such operations in Ireland.
“In Ireland we barely touched 100 last year. It is an area that for some reason is under-funded, neglected and now things have come to a head,” he added.
In a statement the HSE said it was “working with St Vincent’s University Hospital and the lead consultant, Dr O’Shea, to see how the service can be optimised this year within the overall resources available for obesity management in SVUH and St Columcille’s Hospital.”
It said it was “committed to prioritising the development of Bariatric Services as part of the 2015 service planning process and beyond.”
The treatment abroad scheme applies to public patients who want to avail of care in a public hospital in another EU/EEA country.
They must meet certain criteria, including being referred by a consultant.
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