Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise this matter of huge importance. It is a problem in the HSE primary care reimbursement service system that is preventing medical card patients from accessing their care and medication. It must be rectified as a matter of urgency.

I was shocked recently when a medical card holder informed me that she was charged by her doctor for visiting him as she was told her medical card was invalid. She was then told by her chemist that she would have to pay for her medication. Luckily, she had enough medication to last a few days until this problem was dealt it. This patient was a medical card holder whose card was due for renewal. A number of months ago she submitted all her documentation but due to the large backlogs in the local medical card office her review had not yet been dealt with.

The medical card office has a policy that if a number of medical card reviews remain unprocessed on the last working day of each month, the unprocessed applications are rolled over into the next month. This extends the medical card expiry date for another month to allow the review be finalised. However, due to a glitch, it takes approximately four days for the primary care reimbursement service system to be updated and during these four days, the patient's medical card will be shown as "card expired" in the system. That is a worrying and most unsatisfactory situation, particularly for the elderly.

Unfortunately, my constituent was obliged to attend her doctor within these four days. If she had not, she would not have been aware of this situation. Her medical card was rolled over on the last day of October and when she attended her doctor four days later, she was told her card was expired. This was just one of the 2,300 reviews rolled over in south Tipperary last month. There were thousands more throughout the country. I have great respect for the local health board officials who do their best but there is a glitch in the system which must be rectified.

Having checked with the primary care reimbursement service I was informed that it was not its problem. I then spoke with staff in the local office who informed me that they had updated their system on the last day of the month, four days previously, and that the primary care reimbursement service had not yet updated its system. I was also informed that this was a very common problem. I ask the Minister to examine this issue immediately and to try to rectify it.

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