Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The review of the system, both within the Department and the HSE, is virtually continuous. Because of the difficulties that arose with medical cards the matter is constantly being reviewed, re-evaluated and tweaked. There are difficulties concerning medical cards because they no longer technically just give access to a GP or medical services in an acute hospital. Their expansion sometimes causes difficulty. We are examining what additional services are provided and whether it should all come within the ambit of the Department of Health. That is all being examined, but the discretion promised in both reviews by the Government has continued. The Deputy can see from the last piece of information I have provided that clearly the process is working. The humanity and compassion that need to come into play when someone receives a diagnosis, which each and every one of us hopes we will never have to get, must be shown within the system. It is difficult to include this in legislation, but it does need to be provided for.

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