Missing files and delays beset medical card applications
Posted on July 01, 2010 at 11:27 AM
Motion on the Adjournment 1st July 2010
"The need for the Minister for Health and Children to explain why so many applications for renewal of medical cards are being refused under the new system and particularly in the constituency of Dublin Central".
Sick, old and disabled people are suffering because the Minister for Health and the HSE imposed a system to process medical card applications on top of a system designed to process the Primary Care Reimbursement Service.
The result is long delays, files gone missing and general chaos.
In the last analysis the most vulnerable people in our society suffer because of the Minister's mismanagement and insensitivity.
The situation has been made even worse by the lack of information available to applicants and the closed off nature of the application process. The centralisation of the medical card processing to the primary care reimbursement service, PCRS has caused further problems and delays.
Centralisation has caused chaos to the medical cards applications and renewals process. The
PCRS was not set up to deal with medical cards and has struggled to cope with the influx of
applications. Some 10,000 people have had to reapply for medical cards since centralisation.
The PCRS was not consulted on the plan to centralise the medical card system and place it under its control. Now the Minister for Health and Children has had to provide it with extra resources and personnel. Even with these extra resources the PCRS is struggling to cope.
On the 19th of January the Minister told the Oireachtas that she fully supported the centralisation of the medical card application process and said that centralisation would make the whole system more efficient. It was said that it would only take 15 working days to process an application. That was nearly six months ago and the improvements and efficiency that centralisation was meant to bring have yet to materialise. It is still taking months for applications and renewals to be processed. Nothing has changed.
I would have to agree with the Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly when she says that the HSE is living in another world. The problems she has encountered trying to deal with the HSE are the same as the problems facing those trying to get medical cards. The "Alice in Wonderland" trip that she faced it seems is the standard operating procedure for the HSE.
Finally, the Minister needs to urgently clarify the situation in respect of Dublin Central where there seems to be an inordinate number of refusals.
