Waiting list reimbursement scheme will see greater disparity, doctor warns

People who cannot afford to pay for medical procedures upfront are going to suffer under a new reimbursement scheme, a senior medic has said.

The scheme was announced on Tuesday as part of a £215M plan outlined by Health Minister Mike Nesbitt to tackle spiralling hospital waiting lists.

From next month, patients waiting longer than two years for an operation will be able to claim back money if they pay for a procedure in the Republic of Ireland.

But the deputy chair of the British Medical Association in Northern Ireland, Dr Clodagh Corrigan, said that is going to make current problems worse.

“We know there is an enormous gap in health access and in poverty in Northern Ireland,” she told BBC’s Sunday Politics programme.

“If we are now in a position where we are providing a better health service to those who can afford it, we are going to see that disparity become even greater and people who cannot afford to pay for their healthcare up front really suffering.”

Full details of the plan have yet to be outlined and the full range of eligible procedures covered by the cross-border scheme are not yet known.

The Department of Health said patients would require prior approval before accessing the scheme.

Other measures include using NI’s private healthcare providers to target anyone waiting longer than four years on a hip or knee replacement, colonoscopy, hernia or gallbladder surgery.

Nesbitt said initially £10m will be invested in the waiting list reimbursement scheme, which will begin in June 2025.

Dr Corrigan also questioned where Nesbitt will find the money that is needed.

“We are already in a situation in our health service where we are being propped up by staff good will, by and large,” she said.

“They money has to be saved from somewhere so what are we going to lose and what services are we going to have to cut?

“How much worse is the care that we are providing our patients on a day to day basis going to have to get to fund these savings that the minister is looking for to invest in the waiting lists?”

Alliance MLA Nuala McAllister said Northern Ireland is now “lawing in the phase of a two-tier health system”.

“There has to be some equity in [the health service] if it is going to relieve the pressure elsewhere.

“If it is not going to relieve the pressure then we need to look again at other options.

“We need to use all levers and that is just the reality of it.”

Following the announcement, the People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll said the reimbursement scheme was “nothing more than stealth privatisation”.

“The for-profit healthcare sector has the Department over a barrel,” he said in a statement.

“The more the Minister depends on private healthcare to solve this crisis, the weaker our NHS becomes.”