‘Save border health projects from Brexit’
Fears that all-island schemes will lose funding
CROSS-BORDER health projects must be protected during talks on Brexit, according to the head of an agency co-ordinating projects that affect thousands of patients.
Funding of at least €47.6m for a range of such health projects runs out in 2020 – and the future for projects currently applying for the next round of funding is unclear.
Since British prime minister Theresa May triggered Article 50 this week, concerns about the impact of Brexit on Irish patients are growing.
This comes as the Department of Health issued a memo to senior staff last week that stresses the importance of retaining of the Common Travel Area for health services.
Twelve large-scale cross-border health projects are funded by the EU, as well as separate mental health programmes related to the Troubles. In addition to the funding concerns, an estimated 18,000 socalled ‘frontier workers’ who live on one side of the border but work in the other and can access healthcare in both areas face uncertainty.
HSE manager Tom Daly, who is also head of cross-border health body Co-operation And Working Together, said: ‘As the Brexit negotiations proceed, people are interested in what protections can be built in to ensure the North-South collaboration that is happening in health... can be sustained.’
The EU Interreg IVA funding stream of €30m covers a range of projects along the border including a hospitals programme in the areas of ear, nose and throat, urology, vascular health and tackling alcohol abuse.
These projects are funded until 2020 but it is unclear what happens after that, according to Mr Daly. He said new projects under the ‘5A’ stream are just being set up, including one border project being led by the Scottish health department that is guaranteed until 2020.
Separate funding of €17.6m goes to victims and survivors of the Troubles on both sides of the border under the Peace IV programme, also funded to 2020.
March 2019 is the deadline for Brexit to take effect once negotiations have finished with the EU. If negotiations break down, March becomes the default exit date. This means the next two years are crucial for cross-border health.
Mr Daly added: ‘Very positive things have come out of these programmes and that would lead us to believe health will feature in the discussions.’
He stressed the links between the Irish and Northern Irish health systems go far beyond the EUfunded projects. Thousands of workers living in the Republic and working in Northern Ireland are entitled to access the NHS services, and vice versa.
Mr Daly said: ‘One of the things that has to be resolved in the negotiations is that whole issue in relation to the rights of citizens.
‘Currently schemes for emergency treatment of someone from one jurisdiction in the other happen almost seamlessly. How schemes like the E111 or E112 or Treatment Abroad Scheme will function will [feature] in the discussions. Until the actual exit date these schemes stay in place.’
Cross-border co-operation also exists where the two governments have come together to jointly fund new services. For example, a cancer unit at Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry was part-funded by the HSE with €20m, so patients from Donegal could access treatment there instead of travelling to Dublin.
‘Health will feature in the discussions’