The Provision of Health Services to Persons Not Ordinarily Resident (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026

Explanatory note

Reproduced verbatim from the instrument as published on legislation.gov.uk (Crown Copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0). The note is prepared by the responsible government department and is not part of the instrument itself.

These Regulations amend the Provision of Health Services to Persons Not Ordinarily Resident Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015 (“ the 2015 Regulations ”) which make available, to visitors in Northern Ireland, certain health services under the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972, at a charge determined by the Department of Health. The 2015 Regulations also provide for various exemptions from charges: some services are always exempt from charge, while some categories of visitor are exempt from charge.

Regulation 4(1)(d) of the 2015 Regulations provides that, subject to Regulation 4(2), no charge may be made or recovered in respect of any services forming part of health services provided to a visitor for treatment in respect of a disease listed in Schedule 1 to those Regulations. Regulation 2 of these Regulations amends Schedule 1 to the 2015 Regulations to insert an entry for hantavirus diseases, including hantavirus pulmonary or cardiopulmonary syndrome (“ HCPS ”) and haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (“ HFRS ”). The effect is that a visitor being treated in a hospital in Northern Ireland for hantavirus disease will be exempt from charges for any Health Service treatment received in respect of that disease, unless it appears that the visitor has travelled to Northern Ireland specifically to receive that treatment.