Seán Connick (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

The centralisation of applications will deliver consistent and equitable application of eligibility and service provision. This measure will provide clearer governance and accountability, as well as improved management information. Finally, the process will lead to a reduction in the overall number of staff required to process medical and GP visit card applications, thus freeing up staff for other service needs.

The decision to centralise the medical card application and review process to a central office will, when fully implemented, enhance the delivery of services provided to the public. It will also realise overall savings through the greater usage of shared services. This decision is in line with the Government policy Transforming Public Services programmeannounced by the Taoiseach in November 2008. The HSE has indicated that procedures are in place to ensure that gaps in eligibility, as described by Deputy McGrath, do not occur. Each month the HSE PCRS updates the central national database on the day that the data is provided to them by local health offices.

In cases where the local health office considers that a review of eligibility will require additional time to complete, then eligibility should be extended prior to the last month which prevents any gap in eligibility for the medical card holder. The HSE is not aware of any such problems and if the specific details of the issue in question are passed to it, it will investigate the matter. If the Deputy has information that a gap in eligibility has occurred in an individual case, the details should be forwarded to the HSE who will investigate it. These individual cases suggest that the procedure to prevent eligibility gaps has not been uniformly implemented. This problem does not arise in regard to the 39% of the medical card population that are being managed directly by the central office at PCRS. This error will be eliminated altogether when the centralisation process is completed early next year.

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