Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 612: To ask the Minister for Health the action he is taking to address delays in processing applications for medical cards; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29248/12]

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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A number of difficulties arose with the processing of medical cards at the HSE centralised application office in the final quarter of last year, which gave rise to a very large backlog and long delays for both new applicants and medical card renewals. While a number of customer service and communication issues remain to be addressed, the HSE has been making good progress in eliminating the backlog and preventing further backlogs occurring. A backlog of 58,000 applications from last year has been completely cleared. The HSE receives up to 50,000 applications per month and over 90% of complete applications are processed within 15 days.

The HSE has introduced a number of changes in recent months to the administration of the medical card application system. These include increased staffing levels in the centralised processing service and in respect of medical card appeals; improvements to how medical card renewals are assessed and the frequency by which they are assessed; increased flexibility for GPs to add certain categories of patients to their GMS list; the fast-tracking of backlogged cases, and cases where documentation has been misfiled. A review of medical card processing has been undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers which contains a number of recommendations that the HSE is considering. I continue to monitor the situation and meet with the HSE on a regular basis to address any issues which may arise in respect of medical cards.