Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the issue raised by the Senator. I am taking this matter on the Adjournment on behalf of the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, who is in the Dáil Chamber. I will not deliver the script provided.

The issue raised by the Senator arises from an exceptional set of circumstances. I do not wish to say it is a complete outlier in cases presented to the HSE. I think anybody with a degree of fairness would acknowledge the individual in this case was not dealt with properly. It is obvious that there was a systems breakdown. I have been given a script, but I do not wish to state there is no role for the Minister for Health in this case, about which I will speak from the script that I have been given.

I acknowledge the points made by the Senator about the fact that in the period from 2012 to date, the individual in question was locked out of the medical card system through no fault of their own. The question is why that happened. I am aware that the HSE has a protocol in place for a review process and that every effort is made to provide for ongoing engagement with clients during this process. That obviously did not happen in this case. Each month the HSE analyses the medical card register to identify those medical cards and GP visit cards scheduled for review within three months. That obviously did not happen in this instance.

Now all customers scheduled for review are notified and a balance of either full reviews or self-assessments is conducted. That did not happen either in this instance. In this case, the HSE has confirmed that the medical card lapsed. However, the person's medical needs were provided for by a resident doctor, which the Senator has already stated, and any expenses arising from medical appointments or drugs were funded by the service provider. I understand from the HSE that an application has been made, as the Senator has stated, to reinstate the person's medical card in 2014. The Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, has asked the HSE to remind service providers of their responsibility to ensure that such matters are attended to promptly in respect of residents in their care. I do not have an answer for the Senator in relation to what happened in this particular case, but I fully support the Senator's plea on behalf of the client that there be a review of the structures that led to a situation whereby that person was not in receipt of a medical card if that person was entitled to one for a particular period of time.

If I understand the Senator correctly, the medical card was cancelled but the family was not informed or was not in receipt of any documentation to that effect. To be frank, I think the very least the person is entitled to in this instance is some acknowledgement of that fact, but as Oireachtas Members we all, including me, have experience of circumstances where documentation has slipped through the cracks. I do not want to lay the blame on any particular entity, but a number of Oireachtas Members have sent in documentation to the service on behalf of various clients or constituents and it has got lost somewhere in the ether. I know from my own experience that service has been cleaned up considerably to be fair to the HSE and I am confident that this will continue, given today's announcement, for instance, but the case the Senator raises is worthy of further examination. I hope the most positive outcome would be an assurance that the person's medical card would be restored if that person is so entitled, as seems to be the case, but also that the medical needs, most importantly, are being taken care of.