Health Care

Health Minister Informs Oireachtas Committee of New Plans to Reduce Waiting Time for Medical Cards from 16 Weeks to 15 Days






16th August 2010





Applications for medical cards will now be processed within 15 days, down from the current waiting time of 12 to 16 weeks, Minister for Health, Mary Harney TD has informed the Oireachtas Health Committee.





Minister Harney has updated the Committee on a range of initiatives being introduced to tackle the widespread problems which have existed since the application of medical cards for over 70s was centralised to the HSE s office in Finglas, Co Dublin last year.





The Health Committee held meetings with earlier this year with the HSE, the Irish Medical Organisation and Age Action Ireland in attempt to address the serious delays which had arisen since the application system for over 70s was moved to one centre.





At the meeting, there were worrying reports from Committee members of their constituents having to wait several months to obtain their medical cards and being unable to get through by phone to speak to anyone in the centralised centre in Finglas. This had resulted in worry, distress and applicants taking an unnecessary financial hit.





Following its discussions, the Committee contacted the Minister with as series of proposals to resolve the situation and urged her to settle this matter urgently.





The Minister has now outlined to the Committee a number of new proposals to ensure a more effective running of the service.





Some of the changes include:



Applications for medical cards will now be processed in 15 days (where all relevant information has been furnished) down from the current 12-16 weeks.

A new telephone system which provides customer information and call routing to support client inquiries has been put in place.

Staff in local health offices will have more time and resources to meet pressing front line needs.

All HSE local health offices have now, for the first time, full access to the national database on medical cards. This allows them to track the status of current applications. Doctors also have full access to weekly updates of applications.

A new review process for medical card holders over 70 has been introduced. A simplified declaration process has replaced the more onerous application review form.

A new website, www. medicalcard.ie means people can now apply on line. Currently 29% of all applications are done this way.



Committee Chairman, Se n O Fearghail TD said;



There was real dissatisfaction from Committee members regarding the way the centralisation of medical card applications for over 70s had been handled and the Committee was extremely anxious that the problems were ironed out before plans to centralise all applications are introduced later this year.





At our meetings earlier this year, Committee members recounted the distress, frustration and anxiety felt by many of their constituents by the delay in processing their medical card applications.





Following these meetings, the Committee resolved to contact the Minister and make clear its serious concerns on the matter. We also made a number of recommendations aimed at improving the system and speeding up applications. We are pleased to see that several of our proposals have been adopted and the system seems to have shown some improvements.





The Committee intends to monitor the situation to ensure that improvements are maintained when the application process for all medical cards is centralised later this year. Medical cards are an essential component of many people s lives and any delay or unavailability of this vital resource is just not good enough.





Under the HSE s Service Plan 2009, it was agreed that the processing of all medical card applications would be centralised to the Executive s Primary Care Reimbursement Service in Finglas, Co Dublin. This process commenced in January 2009 when all applications for over 70s were centralised. The HSE intends to transfer the processing of all new medical card applications later this year.





Minister Harney s correspondence also stated that 85% of review cases where the required information was supplied were completed within 20 days and 95% within 30 days. The central office has issued 121, 468 medical cards since January 2009.