Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I will take this Adjournment on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney.

The assessment of eligibility for medical cards and general practitioner visit cards is statutorily a matter for the Health Service Executive and is determined following an examination of the means of the applicant and his or her dependants. Under section 45 of the Health Act 1970, medical cards are provided to persons who, in the opinion of the HSE, are unable without undue hardship to arrange general practitioner medical and surgical services for themselves or their dependants.

Section 58 of the Health Act 1970, as amended, provides for GP visit cards for adult persons with limited eligibility for whom, in the opinion of the HSE, and notwithstanding that they do not qualify for a medical card, it would be unduly burdensome to arrange GP medical and surgical services for themselves or their dependants. Under the Health Act 2008, the income thresholds for entitlement to a medical card for those aged 70 years or over is €700 gross per week for a single person and €1,400 gross per week for a couple.

Until the start of this year, medical card and GP visit card applications were processed in the 32 local health areas. However, under the HSE's 2009 service plan, the processing of medical card and GP visit card applications will be centralised and will transfer to the executive's primary care reimbursement service. The change is being implemented on a phased basis.

The decision by the HSE to centralise the processing of all medical card and GP visit card applications has been made in the context of the requirement to make efficiencies in business practices that can realise savings in this very challenging economic environment. The change will provide an enhanced standardised service to the client population with the ability to deliver services for the public within sustainable levels of expenditure and with the aim of delivering efficiencies by the greater usage of shared services for both internal administration and direct service delivery.

There will be no adverse impact on patient care or the quality of service provided and there will be no adverse effect on the assessment of people whose income exceeds the income guidelines but have a case to be considered on medical or hardship grounds.

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