Ireland-UK cross border healthcare risks

The UK government is not going to replace the EU cross-border healthcare directive, so the Northern Ireland administration must look to negotiate its own deal.  This is likely to take time, but the waiting list figures in Northern Ireland are already much worse than in other parts of the UK and the situation has been impacted further due to the pandemic.

The four NHS systems in the UK, covering England, Northern Ireland Scotland, and Wales, all operate independently.

Currently Northern Ireland is bearing the brunt of post Brexit problems on trade and healthcare. The parliament in Stormont says that a full replacement for the EU cross-border healthcare scheme will take time to negotiate.

A post-Brexit replacement for a cross-border health scheme that allowed Northern Ireland patients to seek treatment in the Republic of Ireland is being negotiated. A similar scheme allowing patients from the Republic to access private healthcare in Northern Ireland has already been set up by authorities in the Republic of Ireland.

The EU’s Cross-Border Directive (CBD) scheme on healthcare has in the past been used by thousands of people to get treatment over the border amid long waiting lists in Northern Ireland.

But the EU directive 2011/24, which allowed patients from Northern Ireland to pay up front for treatment elsewhere and then claim reimbursement, expired at the end of 2020 following the UK’s departure from the EU.

The risk is that, given that patients no longer have the option of going to another EU state for treatment and recouping the costs from the NHS, the already long waiting lists are likely to get worse.

As well as additional funding there is a need for more strategic cross-border co-operation between the two governments, the HSE and Department of Health to get a new healthcare agreement in place.

The NI Executive has not replicated what has been put in place by the Irish government. The longer this is left without a new scheme being introduced the more detrimental the impact will be on the health and lives of patients across Northern Ireland.