People who have bone on a NHS waiting list for more than two years can now pay the procedures in the Republic of Ireland and claim money.
The cross -border plan of £ 10 million, designed to address the waiting lists, entered the other effect on Monday morning.
The Department of Health (DOH) said that, in the future, patients could claim money for operations in the rest of the EU.
But a date has not yet been established for when that extension will happen, and the number of patients capable of taking advantage of or depending on a lot of money remains of the cross -border scheme.
“The second phase of the scheme, the extension to the rest of the EU, will continue,” said a doh spokesman.
“The available financing scale will be clearly connected to the collection levels for the first phase.”
The department already faces a £ 600 million deficit in its budget, since it struggles to reduce waiting lists and salary increases in funds for health workers.
The reimbursement scheme was one of several initiatives, Health Minister Mike Nesbitt announced to address the waiting lists for planned operations, which are the highest in the United Kingdom.
The cross -border element of the scheme means that patients will recover the amount of money that the operation would have cost in Northern Ireland, subject to an approach.
When it was launched last month, the department said that the complete details of the plan had not yet been described and that the full range of eligible procedures covered by the cross -border scheme was not known.
Those eligible for the scheme may access an online health and social care information center that provides guidance to patients on how to request, eligibility criteria and access to the application form.
The refund scheme was included in a description plan for how £ 215 million would be used to address the waiting lists of the Northern Ireland spiral hospital.
Of that, there will be £ 85 million for the red flag and critical care, £ 80 million to develop the capacity within the system and up to £ 50 million to start addressing the portfolio of care tasks.
The plan is to clear the four years of waiting for more than 3,000 patients in the lists of hip, knee, hernia and colonoscopy procedures.
There will be mega clinics for approximately 20,000 patients waiting for ophthalmology, orthopedics, general surgery and hearing, nose and throat (ENT) operations.
The waiting lists for the gynae mesh, the eclosures for children, the feeding tubes for children and the cleft lip and the cleft lip will also be addressed.
The department said there will also be an impulse in the number of nurses specialized in urology and an expansion of rapid diagnostic centers for the fastest detection of pancreas cancer.
