Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

The issue I raise is not of the same magnitude as the matters we have been discussing in recent days. Nevertheless, it is very important to those affected by it, for whom it is causing great hardship and distress. For almost eight months, the Health Service Executive has not been refunding moneys due to patients for certain drugs and items of medical equipment. This represents a policy change that was undertaken in a completely arbitrary fashion and without any regard to the eligibility of patients.

I am aware of two circumstances in which this change of policy is evident. The first relates to patients in need of essential life-saving equipment in their homes, such as oxygen. In the past, the cost of hiring such equipment was refunded each month in the normal manner under the drugs payment scheme. That practice ended last March and these people are now carrying the cost of the equipment. It seems the HSE simply decided one day no longer to reimburse the costs of these ill people. The reason given was that the court challenge by pharmacists to the breach of contract decision might result in the HSE having to pay more. The reality, however, is that HSE management hoped it would have to pay nothing. This was a complete red herring. The court case has nothing to do with the hiring of equipment and the latter has nothing to do with pharmacists. The HSE was using sick people as leverage in its dispute with pharmacists.

The second set of circumstances in which the HSE has failed to provide refunds is in the case of people who have experienced an out-of-hours medical emergency, whether at the weekend or late at night. In such cases, people may have been obliged to obtain medicines from a pharmacy other than the one from which they usually obtain their prescriptions. Even though they might have reached the monthly limit and were entitled to obtain those medicines free of charge, they were obliged to pay for them and have not been reimbursed. The normal practice in such cases was that one paid up-front and was reimbursed later. This is an absolute entitlement. However, the HSE decided, again arbitrarily, not to pay out in order to discredit pharmacists with their patients and so help its court case. Although it has lost that case, it still refuses to pay out. The excuse now is that it will take time to work out how much it owes. It certainly owes more than nothing, which is what those affected have received.

Will the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, relay my concerns to the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, no later than tomorrow morning and ask her to insist that the HSE reimburse this money immediately? However long it may take to work out exactly how much is owed, it should at least pay something on account. People who require life-saving equipment must have some of this money reimbursed because they cannot continue carrying the cost indefinitely. The HSE is behaving despicably in this matter, using sick people as leverage in its argument with pharmacists. It is simply not good enough. I ask the Minister of State to ensure this practice ends tomorrow.

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