The Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly has announced that public in-patient charges for children under 16 years will be abolished in all public hospitals from Wednesday.
This will see the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No.2) Act 2022 remove the acute public in-patient charge of €80 per day including day-case charges for children under 16 years of age in all public hospitals.
Following enactment of the legislation before the summer recess, the Minister for Health signed the Commencement Order providing for the removal of charges from today.
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Minister Donnelly said: “Better access, together with affordability and improved quality are amongst my top priorities in healthcare.
“Therefore, I am delighted to announce that from today, children under 16 will no longer be charged when accessing public in-patient care as a patient in our public hospitals.
“This significant change to healthcare provision in Ireland is focused towards easing the financial burden of parents or guardians when bringing their child to hospital for in-patient care.”
The Minister added that given the current cost of living crisis the move looks to improve affordability for parents.
He said: “In the context of current cost-of-living challenges this is another important commitment by Government towards affordability, as it will make our public hospitals free for children when they require access to treatment as a public patient.
“This initiative builds on the introduction of free contraception for women aged 17-25 that I launched last week.
“My overall goal as Minister for Health is to help ensure that care is accessible and affordable and that cost is not a significant consideration when people need access to in-patient treatment and healthcare more generally.”
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