Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 179: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if entitlement to services under the general medical services scheme is valid across all Health Service Executive regions; if a valid medical card is operable in all regions; the procedures in place to ensure that these entitlements are uniformly recognised; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35824/07]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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Where a person is assessed by the HSE as qualifying for a medical card, he/she is categorised as having full eligibility for health services. This eligibility status is applicable in respect of services in all HSE regions and administrative arrangements are in place to enable a person, for example, to access general practitioner or pharmacy services as necessary in any part of the country.

The HSE has drawn up standard National Medical Card Assessment Guidelines to ensure that all persons applying for a medical card are assessed in a fair and equitable manner. I am also informed by the Executive that national business processes have been developed to enable a model of best practice to be adopted for the processing of medical card applications, including the initial application stage, the assessment stage and the decision making stage.

Before the establishment of the HSE, some variation in practice had developed over time, between the individual health boards, in relation to the provision of certain community services and the range of such services available. These arrangements will be reviewed in the context of the ongoing development of primary care services and the legislative proposals being prepared by my Department to clarify and update existing legislation on eligibility for health and personal social services.