Family planning service suspended

THE IRISH Family Planning Association (IFPA) has suspended services to medical card holders at its main city-centre clinic in Dublin. The association said yesterday the move had been forced on it as funding from the HSE had been exhausted.

It said the refusal of the HSE to make additional funding available contradicted the Government's commitment to reduce the number of crisis pregnancies.

"The IFPA understands that no additional funding will be made available to cover medical card services at its Cathal Brugha Street clinic."

Medical card holders will still be able to access services at the IFPA's other clinic in Tallaght.

A spokeswoman said the association regretted the suspension of services to medical card holders and advised people to attend their GP instead, though she added that some GPs did not offer the full range of family planning services.

There had been a "substantial" increase in demand for services from medical card holders in recent months.

"Already this year we have provided over 4,000 appointments to medical card clients from our city-centre clinic. The suspension of these services may have serious consequences for these clients in their choice of contraception.

"Family planning is a preventative health intervention and is an essential component of a good public health system. There is a political consensus on the need to prevent crisis pregnancies and to reduce the number of women who access abortion services. The lack of funding for an important prevention service contradicts this."

A spokeswoman for the HSE said the IFPA was funded on an annual basis. "The level of funding is limited to an agreed allocation discussed at various local service level agreement meetings throughout the year. The IFPA were advised in July of this year that additional funding would not be available to address expenditure overruns, and were requested to review the service to ensure they remain within their available budget allocation.

"However, IFPA have exceeded their budget over the past number of years despite clear agreements in place for funding."

She said the services could also be accessed through GPs. "The HSE remains available to work with the IFPA prioritising service provision within the allocated budget."

However, Niall Behan, chief executive of the IFPA, said he had been seeking a meeting with the HSE "long before July".

Responding to the implication that the association should have been managing expenditure on medical card holders to make the funds last the year, he asked: "How do you decide which woman to give a service to? It doesn't work like that. You can't ration family planning services."