Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I know we are nearly out of time so I will brief. I really feel we are coexisting in two completely different realities. While the Taoiseach, various Ministers and the HSE still claim there is no problem with the allocation of discretionary cards, I speak on behalf of the Jack & Jill Foundation's nurses who are faced with the reality on the ground. We can say with certainty that everything has changed and that the situation is getting worse in respect of the allocation of medical cards. We are inundated with parents who are stressed and all the words used earlier. There is a lack of compassion and understanding and parents are frightened and overwhelmed by the amount of evidence they need to produce when they are asked to rebook their medical cards. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has recommendations in respect of sick children and their entitlement to medical cards. Can we look at that and at least stand up for it?

I have a quick question for Mr. O'Brien who I welcome to the HSE. Has he stress-tested the HSE's value for money in respect of outsourced private health services? I was shocked to hear earlier about the salary scale of €340,000 for a CEO because the Jack & Jill Foundation does not merely exist to look after our children and nurse them at home. According to the report of Professor Charles Normand from Trinity College, it is nine times cheaper to let the money follow the patient and nurse him or her at home. We have raised €47 million and are on our way to €50 million and the HSE has given us €4 million since 1998. I am very interested in understanding things.

The HSE has also changed the way one gets a medical card if one is unlucky enough to give birth to a child who needs palliative care and one would like the child to go home. It used to be the case that one was given a medical card there and then in the hospital. It used to be the case that with a few telephone calls, an emergency medical card would be issued. One must now go out to the General Register Office as a very stressed and upset parent and register the birth. One must then wait a number of days. I heard a case only two weeks ago involving a baby born in the Coombe Women & Infants University Hospital who was transferred to Our Lady's Childrens Hospital in Crumlin. It took a week to get that child a medical card and Our Lady's Childrens Hospital and the Jack & Jill Foundation had to pay for the supply of equipment to feed the child to get them home so they could die at home. I do not want to get too personal but we have two realities here. I asked a question in the Seanad the other night and was not happy with the answer because it did not reflect the reality of what is happening.