Investigating Access to Stem Cell Therapy in Ireland
“Stem Cell” Call for Stories from Patients Told There Were No Options
Why this investigation started
This investigation began following information provided to me by a clinician working at a Dublin based private clinic that forms part of a wider national network with regional clinics operating nationwide.
What I found most shocking was not the existence of these clinics but the background of some of the patients presenting themselves. I was told that many of these individuals were not referred through Irish hospitals at all. They had been told by their doctors that there were no further options available to them.
My friend explained that these same patients later found information independently online through social groups or through word of mouth. They then approached UK based companies for assessment and referral and were subsequently referred back to Ireland for treatment. According to her a significant number of these patients went on to experience positive clinical outcomes.
Despite this reality the Irish clinic is prohibited from advertising or providing information about unlicensed cell based therapies to members of the public. Direct enquiries regarding such treatments must be refused.
The UK payment and referral pathway “loophole”
According to the clinician the mechanism enabling access is a cross border referral structure involving UK based parent companies.
Under this arrangement the patient is first accepted by a UK entity. Payment for the treatment is made to that UK company. The UK company then issues a formal referral to the Irish clinic. The Irish clinic then performs the procedure as a service provider rather than as the supplier of the therapy.
The Irish clinic does not accept direct payment or referrals for these procedures. Its role is limited to administering treatment to a UK referred patient. This structural separation allows the clinic to remain compliant with Irish and European regulatory requirements governing advanced therapy medicinal products.
I was told that many of the patients using this pathway had previously been informed within the Irish healthcare system that no further options were available to them.
Regulatory silence and information barriers
Ireland operates under a European regulatory framework that restricts how unlicensed cell based therapies may be discussed supplied or promoted. Clinics are limited in what they can say to patients and cannot advertise or respond to direct enquiries.
The result is that patients are only informed of the options that exist within the Irish public system. They are not informed of cross border mechanisms through which alternative therapies may be accessed even where those therapies are legally administered in Ireland following referral from a foreign provider.
Two patients with identical diagnoses may therefore receive entirely different outcomes based solely on access to private information rather than clinical need.
Call for Stories
I am seeking to hear from Irish patients who were told that no further treatment options were available to them, but who later accessed stem-cell-based treatment by paying companies outside of Ireland before receiving treatment within the State.
All stories will be handled with strict discretion. No individuals or companies will be identified. If this route has led to positive outcomes for patients, the aim is not to make access to treatment more difficult in the future, but rather to raise the question with government as to why its position on this issue has not changed and, at the very least, why clear information is not being provided to those seeking these therapies.
This forms part of a wider investigation into Irish healthcare and the question of why some patients are told there is no alternative when potentially life-saving treatments may exist.
If you are willing to share your experience, please contact me at sean@irelandreports.online.
If you prefer to make contact anonymously, you may also do so via Reddit.