Rural patients’ bigger bill for cancer service

Cancer sufferers in rural areas face intuitional discrimination when accessing the health service, it was claimed this week.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) stands accused of “actively discriminating” against certain sick people because of where they live.

Independent TD, Denis Naughten, said the HSE medical card unit favours urban patients over those who live in rural areas and the regions.

The HSE is supposed to consider the cost of accessing specialist medical care when patients travel from rural areas to hospitals in the cities.

But Deputy Naughten claims the HSE is not including travel costs as part of means assessments for patients who have ongoing medical conditions, including cancer, which require regular hospital visits.

The former Fine Gael politician cited instances where sick people are forced to fork out huge sums of money – without reimbursement – in order to get to hospital appointments.

“In one example, a person living in County Roscommon, who does not drive and does not have access to public transport, is attending ten medical appointments monthly spread between Galway and Ballinasloe. She received a health expense allowance which is €10 per week less than a patient living in Galway city, receiving all of their treatment in Galway University Hospital,” said Deputy Naughten.

“I know of an individual living in Galway city, who is being treated in St. Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin. They get an allowance of €11.54 per week for health expenses and €33.23 per week for prescribed medicines and appliances. I also know of another patient in Galway city who is being treated in Galway University Hospital with exactly the same allowances. How can the Minister justify that a woman living in my constituency, who has to travel to the four ends of the country to attend appointments, should receive the same allowance as someone in Galway city who is receiving care there? What about someone in Galway city who has to travel across the country to get treatment at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin? Where is the equality in that?”

Deputy Naughten said other patients are forced to pay out up to €200 for a taxi fare to access hospital appointments because of a lack of public transport in rural areas. “Yet the HSE is deliberately ignoring these costs.”

Deputy Naughten added: “This practice is happening right throughout the country, even though the HSE claim that the distance from medical treatment, such as cancer treatment, is taken into consideration, when assessing financial hardship for the medical card. In reality, the HSE is actively discriminating against those who are sick, and have to travel from provincial towns and rural Ireland to specialist centres for treatment. Is it not enough that people have lost their local health services and are forced to travel to access treatment, without denying them a medical card because of where they live?”