OIREACHTAS HEALTH COMMITTEE:THE HEALTH Service Executive yesterday blamed trade union Impact for contributing to the backlogs in processing medical cards for the over-70s in the new centralised system.
The body claimed that the union had been resisting centralisation for more than a year and was refusing to work with management to roll out the new procedures.
But TDs at the Oireachtas Health Committee questioned the claims and demanded to know whether the public would be able to get access to health officials locally to get details or help with their applications.
The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), which also attended along with Age Action, warned there would be chaos if the HSE went ahead with plans to centralise the processing of applications for all ages into the same office by next month. Dr Martin Daly said: “I think there will be absolute chaos if this moves to a national system. The experience so far has been a disaster with the over-70s.”
Dr Ronan Boland of the IMO, a GP, said his staff were effectively refusing to ring Finglas to check on applications because they couldn’t get through.
“They say they simply cannot get through to a human being,” Dr Boland said. “We feel the least we can expect is a timely response from the HSE.”
The IMO said it surveyed GP members and found in a sample of 60 practices at least 645 patients who held a valid medical card or were entitled to one were not on the list held by the Primary Care Reimbursement Service, which had been processing over-70s renewals centrally since January 2009.
The IMO demanded the centralisation process be deferred until a series of measures had been put in place.
These include notifying all medical card holders in writing at least three months before their medical cards expire; rolling out a dedicated fast-track system without delay for GPs; and putting in place an independent appeals process for patients who feel they have been refused a medical card unfairly.
Patrick Burke of the HSE said that the backlogs had been compounded by Impact’s recommendation to workers not to co-operate with the centralisation process. Siptu was also involved, he said.
Mr Burke said the Finglas office was receiving 5,000 calls a day because staff in local offices were not dealing with queries.
“There are circumstances there that are pushing all of the public across the country to ring one office,” Mr Burke said.