Credit unions lent €30 million last year to people to pay for essential medical treatment.
Figures obtained by The Irish Times from the Irish League of Credit Unions show that last year its members sought loans of "at least" €30 million under the "medical needs" category.
The reasons given by people seeking these loans were to pay for such procedures as heart surgery, hip replacements, knee surgery, eye surgery, MRI scans, X-rays, orthodontic work, consultants' fees, outpatient fees and health insurance.
Liam O'Dwyer, chief executive with the league, said he was taken aback at the scale of lending for health services.
He believed the true figure was probably even higher.
Given the highly personal nature of medical need, he said many people would say the loan was for something else when applying for the money.
He also pointed out that those borrowing for medical reasons were not just from the poorest households.
"These are ordinary people struggling to get a decent and timely medical and dental service, whether social welfare recipients, low-earners or financially squeezed middle-class families." People could "no longer endure the delay of public waiting lists".
He added that the figure underlined the credit union movement's crucial social function.
The Money Advice and Budgeting Service said that debt for medical reasons was a "growing concern". It added that as the number of people entitled to a medical card has fallen, more people were having to borrow for medical expenses.
The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) said it was "shocked but not one bit surprised" by the figure.
Dr Martin Daly, chairman of the IMO's GP committee, said he saw on a daily basis patients, with and without medical cards, borrowing to pay for procedures such as MRI scans and CT scans done privately to have a diagnosis confirmed. A scan is necessary for a person to be seen by a specialist when treating many conditions.
With waiting times for such procedures on the public list between nine months to a year, he said people "make the economic decision" to, for example, borrow up to €600 for an MRI scan.
The IMO said 10,000 people have lost their entitlement to a medical card since Mary Harney became Minister for Health last November. It is calling for means-tested medical cards to be issued to every person living on or below the minimum wage.
