Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

What is happening is disgraceful. People over 70 fully entitled to a medical card, when they submit their review forms with supporting information, find that they still have not received their cards months later. Several have received letters from their doctors to tell them their medical cards have been cancelled. A number of very upset people have contacted my office. These are people who were due for hospital admission or needed medical procedures but are refusing to leave home because they cannot afford the hospital bills and they cannot get their renewed cards. This is no way to treat the elderly in our society. It is an appalling situation that has been allowed to develop. The elderly are very frightened because the medical cards to which they are entitled are not being sent out to them. The Minister cannot blame the HSE. She has the responsibility for this. I demand that those cards be sent out immediately to alleviate the hardship and remove the fear from these people.

I shall cite three cases. There is a 93 year old woman in the district hospital whose medical card expired at the end of October. She was given a temporary card until the end of November. Her daughter spent more than an hour and a half on the telephone to the HSE one day trying to get this matter resolved. The HSE says it could be some weeks before the medical card issues. Her family had been told that they will have to pay for their mother's stay in the district hospital and they are not in a position to do so.

An 84 year old woman has waited three months for her medical card. She needs hospital treatment, yet is refusing to be admitted until such time as she has her card, as she is afraid she will have to cover the medical expenses. Her daughter telephoned the HSE nine times and on one occasion was left 18 minutes on hold. On another occasion she was left holding for a full ten minutes.

An 85 year old woman, who has spent most of the year in hospital and has several more operations to undergo, has told her family she will not attend for any further surgery until she receives her medical card.

Yesterday, I wrote to the Minister for Health and Children because I knew she would not be here tonight nor any of her Ministers of State, which is a disgrace in itself. I also wrote to Professor Brendan Drumm. I tell Dr. Drumm and the Minister that this is an outrageous situation where people over 70 are worried and frightened, because the HSE removed this service from every county and centralised it in Dublin. It is now on a go-slow and unable to cope with the workload.

I am calling on the Minister tonight to bring the services back into the regions and the counties where there was no problem before, and not have elderly people frightened. I call on the senior citizens to march as they did a year ago, to ensure that elderly people aged 70 and over get the medical card to which they are entitled. It is a disgrace, an attack on the elderly and I am disappointed there is not a Minister or Minister of State present from the Department of Health and Children. How can this be sorted when they are not here to listen to what is going on?

See this speech in context