Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 1981

Medical treatment and approved hospital treatment.

[1966 OI, s. 33]

63.—(1) For the purposes of this Chapter “medical treatment” means medical, surgical or rehabilitative treatment (including any course of diet or other regimen), and references in this Chapter to a person receiving or submitting himself to medical treatment shall be construed accordingly.

(2) References in this Chapter to a person receiving approved hospital treatment shall be construed, in relation to any occupational injuries benefit payable to him, as referring to his receiving, as an in-patient in a hospital or similar institution, with the approval of the Minister, medical treatment for the relevant injury or loss of faculty.

(3) Regulations may provide that where a person receives medical treatment as an in-patient for two or more distinct periods separated by an interval or intervals of less than a specified duration, he shall be treated for the purposes of this Chapter as receiving it continuously from the beginning of the first period until the end of the last.