Cross-border health scheme will return to help with waiting lists – Nesbitt

A cross-border healthcare scheme will be reinstated to help relieve hospital waiting list pressures in Northern Ireland, Mike Nesbitt has said.

The Health Minister told MLAs he wanted to proceed “at pace” with work on getting the reimbursement scheme up and running.

Before Brexit, the European Union’s Cross-Border Health Directive was used to reimburse patients in Northern Ireland who were diagnosed with a clinical need and received treatment in another EU country.

This was later replaced by a direct scheme with the Republic of Ireland, which closed in 2022 due to lack of funding.

Hospital waiting lists in Northern Ireland are currently the worst in the UK.

Mr Nesbitt was allocated £215 million in the recently agreed 2025/26 budget to attempt to deal with waiting list pressures.

During ministerial question time at the Northern Ireland Assembly, Sinn Fein MLA Orlaithi Flynn asked Mr Nesbitt if he had given any consideration to re-introducing a cross-border scheme.

He said: “I most certainly have, yes.

“There is £215 million broken into three pots of money – £85 million for red flag cancer and urgent, then £80 million which is to stop the waiting lists growing any larger effectively. That is £165 million of the £215 million.

“That is coming out of my budget, it is being ring-fenced by the Executive.

“Tackling waiting lists is an Executive priority, I have no difficulty with that because I agree with it.

“And then I am getting another £50 million in June monitoring if I can provide the right plan and I accept I need to be able to justify that spend.”

Mr Nesbitt said a “cocktail” of measures would be needed to tackle the waiting lists crisis.

He said: “There will be work that will be carried out by the health and social care trusts within the HSC system

“Secondly, we will have to look to independent providers.

“Thirdly, we will look to reinstate a cross-border scheme.

“And we will be doing all that at pace and I will be meeting officials in the coming days to look at an options paper they are preparing for me in that regard.”

Mr Nesbitt reminded MLAs that through the scheme patients would have to pay for their treatments in advance and then be reimbursed by his department.

He said: “There is an equity issue that I am concerned about and that I want to see what might be done, with no guarantees, to try and mitigate the fact that there might be those who actually can’t afford or can’t find the means to find the money for the up-front payment.”

The health minister added: “We want to proceed at pace.

“The cross-border scheme, I am being told, if we start next week, it could be another six to eight weeks before we are putting it in place where we start the machinery rocking.

“That is getting well into this financial year and, like people who are on a waiting list, I am pretty impatient to get this done.”

Ms Flynn, a member of Stormont’s Health Committee, said the minister should explore all options to ensure patients get the care they need.

She said: “This scheme previously enabled many patients on long waiting lists to access vital procedures — particularly knee and hip operations — which not only reduced waiting times but significantly improved quality of life for those individuals.

“Given the proven success of the Cross-Border Healthcare Directive, I am pleased that the minister is taking steps to reinstate it.”

SDLP health spokesman Colin McGrath also welcomed Mr Nesbitt’s comments.

He said: “The cross-border health scheme, first introduced by the EU, helped thousands of people from both sides of the border access timely care in locations that suited their needs.

“It was deeply regrettable that the scheme was allowed to end in 2022 due to a lack of funding and the absence of an executive, depriving people of vital care as waiting lists continued to grow.

“From the day and hour this scheme ended the SDLP has been campaigning for its return and I welcome the commitment from the minister today.

“We also share concerns that under the previous scheme patients had to pay upfront for their treatment and were then reimbursed. Any new scheme must address this imbalance.”

Mr McGrath added: “It’s welcome that the minister is focusing on a solution that can quickly help people on both sides of the border access care.”