Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney.

The assessment of eligibility for medical cards and general practitioner, GP, visit cards is statutorily a matter for the Health Service Executive, HSE, and is determined following an examination of the means of the applicant and his or her dependants. Up to 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 service plan for 2009, the processing of all medical card and GP visit card applications will be centralised and will transfer to the executive's primary care reimbursement service, PCRS, in Dublin. This change is being implemented on a phased basis and commenced with the PCRS processing all medical card applications for persons aged 70 or over.

The decision by the HSE to centralise the processing of applications has been made in the context of the requirement to realise the savings in this very challenging economic environment. The change will provide an enhanced standardised service to the client population. It will also deliver services for the public within sustainable levels of expenditure and with the aim of achieving efficiencies by the greater usage of shared services. In view of the fact that medical card applications will all be processed centrally, this will result in a more consistent and transparent approach being applied. There will be no adverse impact on patient care or the quality of service provided. In addition, there will be no adverse affect on the assessment of people whose income exceeds the income guidelines but who have a case to be considered on medical or hardship grounds.

Under the new arrangements, the HSE will be aiming for a turnaround time of 15 days or less for all medical card applications. Emergency applications will be dealt with immediately, with a card issuing within 24 hours. People whose income exceeds the income guidelines but who have a case to be considered on medical or hardship grounds will continue to have their applications considered by the PCRS.

The HSE has advised the Department of Health and Children that there are no plans to close any of the local health offices. These offices will continue to deal with queries of a general nature about the medical card scheme and will provide any assistance needed with the application process. In conjunction with the national helpline, they will also deal with inquiries from clients in respect of their medical card entitlements and the completion of application forms. However, the process will involve a reassignment of existing human resources within the HSE.

This is a good example of the type of innovation signalled in the transforming public services programme announced by the Taoiseach last November. It demonstrates how improved services can be delivered within the more limited resources available in a way which meets the needs of citizens in a modern society.

I wish to highlight that the number of persons with medical cards has increased by over 240,000 since the start of 2005. Almost 1.4 million people are now covered by the card. In addition, over 90,000 people have GP visit cards.