Some cancer patients are being pursued by debt collectors.
The Irish Cancer Society has called on the HSE to stop referring cancer patients’ debt to collection agencies.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, CEO of the Irish Cancer Society, Averil Power, said that some cancer patients are continuously being pursued by debt collectors for as little as €80.
She also said that those patients without a medical card or private health insurance are consistently being asked to pay charges of up to €800 a year for treatment such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
“These are patients who are very sick, who are already having to cope with the emotional and physical impact of cancer. To be pursued in such a frightening way by your public hospital system is incredibly unfair.”
She adds: “In some cases they are patients who eventually, when their medical cards are processed, will be entitled to a medical card, but in the meantime they will have received all kinds of threatening letters, home visits, phone calls, from debt collection agencies. It is totally unnecessary, it causes unfair distress for patients and it should stop.”
Whenever charges are not paid within 47 days, HSE policy is that they may be pursued by a debt collection agency.
In a statement published by RTÉ, the HSE said that charges are not just levied on cancer patients, but all patients who attend public hospitals and that they’ve an obligation to charge and collect these charges.
The statement adds that hospitals also have the ability to operate their own payment plans, if appropriate.
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