Dublin will pay for Derry Euro healthcare post-Brexit transition and Donegal cancer and heart attack patients will still access Altnagelvin, says Tánaiste Leo Varadkar

Donegal cancer and heart attack patients, meanwhile, will also continue to avail of vital services at Altnagelvin in 2021.

The Tánaiste Leo Varadkar committed to the continued provision when asked what would happen when the EU cross-border health directive ceases to apply in the north.

“We are trying to put alternative arrangements in place to maintain the status quo when it comes to cross-border healthcare. Existing arrangements which see people, for example, in Donegal using Altnagelvin Hospital for cancer or cardiology services and people from NI using Dublin hospitals for cardiothoracic surgery, will all remain in place.

“We will provide a scheme for residents of NI which will be the same as the EHIC, scheme. People living in Britain will no longer be eligible for EHIC, which is the new version of the old E111 form, but residents of NI will still have it and we will fund that from the Irish Exchequer. It seems that under the common travel area arrangements that Irish citizens in NI and Britain, and vice versa, will continue to be able to avail of each other’s health services, but that might not apply to people resident in one jurisdiction travelling to a private hospital in the other jurisdiction,” said the Fine Gael leader.