Prescriptions, dental care and eye tests are on help with health costs.
Quick facts
- Hospital treatment
- Free for UK residents
- Visitors
- Usually pay for non-emergency care
- Everyday conditions
- Pharmacy First at your pharmacy
- Reablement
- For people 65 and over at home
- Your records
- You have a right to a copy
Who gets free healthcare
Treatments and appointments at Health and Social Care (HSC) hospitals are free for all UK residents. Only people who are Ordinarily Resident in Northern Ireland are eligible to receive free publicly funded healthcare.
Visitors to Northern Ireland are generally not eligible to receive free non-emergency healthcare. Being born in Northern Ireland, holding a UK passport or birth certificate, paying taxes, receiving a UK pension, or owning a UK property does not mean you are automatically entitled. See frontier worker healthcare.
Pharmacy First
If you have an everyday health condition, you can use the Pharmacy First service to get advice and treatment from a local pharmacist, without waiting for an appointment to see your GP. You can ask for a private consultation without an appointment.
Reablement at home
Reablement can help you do things for yourself rather than relying on other people. The service is for people aged 65 and over living in their own home. A health and social care professional needs to refer you to the local Trust's reablement team.
Podiatry
You may be entitled to free Health Service podiatry services, mainly for medical foot problems rather than routine care.
Your records
You have the right to receive a copy of your medical or Health and Social Care records under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. If you are denied access, you can approach the Information Commissioner's Office.
Other services
Abortions can only be carried out in Northern Ireland under the care of one of the five Health and Social Care Trusts, which offer free advice and counselling. Early abortion services for pregnancies less than 12 weeks are available.
More services
If you need nursing care or support at home, a community nurse or health visitor could help. Allied health professionals, such as physiotherapists and speech and language therapists, help people protect and improve their health.
If you have diabetes, you should have your foot care plan reviewed every year by your local podiatry team. Assessment and routine surgery for cataracts or varicose veins is carried out in Regional Assessment and Surgery Centres, open to people from all Trusts.
If you or someone near you has a life-threatening medical emergency, call 999 immediately or go to your nearest emergency department. Specialist doctors can prescribe cannabis-based products when other treatments are not suitable or have not helped.
Common questions
Is hospital treatment free in Northern Ireland?
Yes, for UK residents. Only people ordinarily resident in Northern Ireland get free publicly funded healthcare.
What is Pharmacy First?
A service where a local pharmacist can advise on and treat everyday conditions without a GP appointment.
- nidirect: Hospital admissions
- nidirect: Health services for visitors to Northern Ireland
- nidirect: Community pharmacists
- nidirect: Reablement care at home service
- nidirect: Podiatrists
- nidirect: Accessing medical or Health and Social Care records
- nidirect: Northern Ireland Electronic Care Record (NIECR)
- nidirect: Abortion services
- nidirect: Weight management services
- nidirect: Urgent and emergency care services
- nidirect: First aid
- nidirect: Community nurses and health visitors
- nidirect: Allied health professionals (AHP)
- nidirect: Diabetes foot care
- nidirect: Regional centres for cataracts and varicose veins treatment
- nidirect: Emergency department waiting times
- nidirect: Medicinal cannabis
- nidirect: Prescriptions