Fury as HSE cuts refunds to those going North for cataract operations

A 2022 photo of Cork South-West TD Michael Collins welcoming patients on to the 100th Belfast or Blind Bus for their cataract procedures in Belfast. Picture: Neil Michael.

The decision to slash reimbursement rates for people on waiting lists who need cataract operations carried out abroad will lead to people going blind, TD Michael Collins has claimed.

The Cork South-West TD and Independent Ireland party leader said this is because fewer people will be able to afford to go abroad to get them done as a result of a decision by the HSE.

The cost of cataract operations is approximately €2,400 per eye. 

From Monday, reimbursement rates for the most common cataract procedures will drop from €1,456 to €1,171, and from €1,912 to €863.

This means that people who go to the North will have to pay more of the €2,500 cost of getting each cataract operation done in private hospitals there.

Although treatment is covered by the Northern Ireland Planned Healthcare Scheme, the HSE is only obliged to refund whichever is the lower of the two costs — the cost of care in the North, or the cost of care on the HSE.

The reimbursement rate for just one category of cataract operation has gone up, and this is for a very complex operation, which will see the reimbursement rate go from €1,912 to €4,206.

Danny Healy-Rae, who runs the Cataracts Express service from Munster to Belfast with Cork South-West TD Michael Collins, said: “Most of what we do is bring people up to Belfast who have to pay around €2,400 for each eye.

Up until now, the amount they could get back was a substantial help in the over all cost of going up to Belfast. 

"Shame on the Taoiseach, who said he would look into these rises, and shame on the Minister of Health Stephen Donnelly for this being allowed happen on his watch.

"Also, shame on the HSE for doing what they have done.”

Mr Collins added: "The most vulnerable are literally being robbed blind.

“So many of those affected are pensioners who will have to borrow more money now to get their eyes operated on or more of them are going to be forced to just sit at home and go blind as they languish on HSE waiting lists."

He said that while he and Mr Healy-Rae have been organizing up to three coaches to Belfast each month, that number grew to ten after the HSE announced in July it was slashing reimbursement rates.

According to statistics released to the Irish Examiner, more than 10,500 of the 32,942 people waiting to just have their eyesight assessed have been waiting between six and 18 months.

An additional 5,000 have been waiting for such assessments for more than 18 months.

Under the Northern Ireland Planned Healthcare Scheme, the HSE is obliged to refund the lower of two costs — the cost of care in the North, or the cost of care on the HSE. Picture: iStock

More than 8,500 of those who have had their eyes assessed are now waiting for some form of corrective surgery, including 420 who have been waiting more than 18 months.

They also include more than 4,000 people who are aged over 70, some of whom will have been waiting up to three or four years to be treated.

A HSE spokesperson said: "The price of procedures carried out in the Republic of Ireland is based on information provided by acute hospitals, using an international classification system.

“The price is then the price charged by acute hospitals in the Republic of Ireland, and reimbursed by the HSE.

The HSE had not updated the pricing of procedures for the last few years due to covid. There has this year been a reclassification of all procedures, including certain cataract procedures.

“As a result some prices have increased, and some have decreased.”