Dan Neville (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the representatives of the HSE, the Department and the Ministers. ReachOut will terminate at the end of this year. In terms of my experiences establishing ReachOut, it took three years of consultations and meetings of the expert group before it came to a decision. Some 90% of the recommendations were included in the National Task Force on Suicide, which reported in 2008. During that three years, the answer to every question asked in the Dáil about suicide was that the Minister was awaiting the report of the expert report. There were no questions responded to or improvements made over a three year period because they were waiting for a report. I am not saying that will happen but that issue might be addressed. It was extremely frustrating during that period because nobody was telling us anything that was going on other than that the expert report was awaited.

Regarding question No. 6, the Minister informed us that of the 891 new staff to be recruited to the community mental health services etc. in 2012 and 2013, 514 have already been recruited but 30% have not been recruited, therefore, €30 million of the budget of €70 million for that period has not been spent. In fact, it is in excess of €30 million because there was recruitment during 2013. Where is the €30 million that was not spent because the recruitment did not take place? We know the Minister and the Government made a specific decision to allocate moneys. Obviously, they felt that was necessary because of the historical neglect and the likelihood that would continue in regard to development of the mental health service. Is there an incentive in terms of using moneys not spent elsewhere within the health service?

Regarding medical cards, and I appreciate what Mr. Healy has said, I want to dwell briefly on the administration of the medical card system in which considerable problems remain. I will mention a few of them that have been raised with me by general practitioners. Renewal forms are sent out between two to six weeks before expiry date but it takes six weeks or more to process them. Can GPs extend a medical card for a period of three months if a decision is not made on a medical card? Also, application forms are being lost repeatedly. Most of us in our clinics have come across people who say they sent in the application in October or December and they still have not got the card.

Furthermore, patients are not being removed from lists despite timely issuing of death certificates. I had a situation where a death certificate was submitted last March and the doctor was still being paid up to recently for that individual. Also, cards are being cancelled without patients or doctors being informed prior to the cancellation.

A patient turns up the surgery only to discover out of the blue that he or she does not have a medical card even though it has not expired. These are some of the administrative difficulties that still are inherent in the system.