HSE taking ‘urgent’ action to restore medical card system

The Health Service Executive is taking urgent action to restore its medical card system, which has been down since last week due to a "technical issue".

Patients’ representatives reported that GPs had been unable to register new medical cards or to check the validity of cards since last Wednesday due to the glitch.

In a statement, the HSE said the technical issue that had given rise to the disruption of services at the Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS)/National Medical Card Unit (NMCU) was being addressed “urgently”.

“Systems will be restored fully to all concerned, as soon as possible,” it said yesterday.

Paula Whyte, practice manager of theclinic.ie in Dublin, said staff at the clinic had contacted their software provider when they could not access the PCRS system, but had been informed the problem was in fact with the HSE's systems.

No information about the technical issue had been issued by the HSE, she said.

Ms Whyte expressed concern that patients in some busy clinics might end up being charged for a visit due to the inability to check the validity of their medical card.

PCRS processes payments to all of the GPs, dentists, pharmacists and other professionals who provide free or reduced cost services to the public.

Independent TD for Kerry Michael Healy Rae said the situation was "causing awful distress to particularly sick people who are wondering why there cards are not being processed".

He said he had been told that the service should be restored by today.

Meanwhile, the HSE said anyone applying for a medical card in emergency circumstances should contact it at cru.emergency@hse.ie or by phone at (01) 8647186.

“The processing of non-emergency medical card and GP visit card applications will recommence once systems are restored.

“All applications received are monitored in order to identify priority cases for the grant of eligibility, without delay,” it added.