Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this matter. As she will be aware, under the Health Act 1970, as amended, eligibility for health services is based primarily on residency and means. The Act provides that all persons ordinarily resident in the country are eligible, subject to certain charges, to public inpatient hospital services. The current public hospital statutory inpatient charge is €80 per day, subject to a maximum of €800 in any period of 12 consecutive months and the outpatient charge for attendance at an emergency department is €100.

All persons accessing an emergency department and public inpatient services in a public hospital are liable for the statutory charges, subject to a number of exemptions, including where a person is a medical cardholder. While medical cardholders are exempt from hospital charges, the exemption is only valid from the date of issue of the medical card. Patients, therefore, continue to be liable for any charges which occurred before a medical card has been issued. It should be noted that in cases where patients who are terminally ill, in palliative care or who are seriously ill and in urgent need of medical care that they cannot afford, the HSE has an effective system in place for the provision of emergency medical cards. They are issued within 24 hours of receipt of the required patient details and the letter of confirmation of the condition from a doctor or a medical consultant.

Given the nature and urgency of the issue, the HSE, which has responsibility for the national medical card unit, has appropriate escalation routes to ensure that the person gets the emergency medical card as quickly as possible.

I fully understand the sentiment behind the raising of this issue, but I am sure that the Senator can appreciate that not every application for a medical card will be approved.The national medical card unit receives approximately 39,000 medical card and GP visit card applications each month. A large percentage of these will be deemed unsuccessful for reasons such as the provision of insufficient information or failure to meet the qualifying means threshold. Therefore, the exemption from hospital charges is only valid from the date of issue of the medical card. This position is in compliance with the legislative framework. It is important to note that every effort is made to process medical card applications as quickly as possible in order to ensure that those who are eligible do not encounter a financial barrier to accessing healthcare. In that regard, the national medical card unit has consistently met its key performance target, which is to have 95% of complete medical card applications assessed for eligibility within 15 days. I have been assured that there are currently no delays in the processing of medical card applications.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Senator. I assure her that the charging of fees and the processing of the medical card applications operate in a fair manner within a legislative framework.