A 100-YEAR-OLD west of Ireland resident is among a dozen senior citizens from one parish who were informed earlier this month that they are no longer eligible for a medical card.
The dozen people, who are all served by one Co Galway medical practice, were eligible for medical cards before the health scheme was extended to all people over 70 years of age regardless of income.
The centenarian is in good health, but has a close family member who has a chronic illness. The decision to cancel the cards has caused “untold stress and upset” to these patients, according to their general practitioner (GP).
Another of the patients who also has a chronic illness was “saving the State money” by being cared for at home, the GP said. “Now that the medical card has been cancelled, the patient effectively no longer has a home care option.”
The Health Service Executive (HSE) said that it had written to 345,000 people in January. It invited them to surrender their non-means tested medical card by March 2nd if their income was over €700 a week for a single person or €1,400 a week for a couple, an HSE spokesman said.
“Some 10,690 people have returned their card to date,” the spokesman said. The majority of people over 70 whose income wasn’t over this level were told that their cards would continue, he said.
The spokesman did confirm that a separate “database review” of medical cards was taking place which included holders who were over 70.
“Medical card administration is being centralised with the Primary Care Reimbursement Scheme [PCRS] and the purpose of this review is to update that system in conjunction with GPs.”
The HSE spokesman said it would be “unfortunate” if administrative errors had occurred which led to the Co Galway situation.
“We would apologise to anyone who may be affected in this way, and we would ask the relevant GP to contact us,” he said.
The GP said HSE West had already been informed of the situation several weeks ago. Several GPs told The Irish Timesthey believed there was an attempt to remove cards from over-70 year olds "by stealth".
“When the HSE didn’t get enough forms back from the so-called “gold card holder” by March 2nd, it decided to do their own review to put people under pressure,” one GP said.
Last week, Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) president Dr Martin Daly said he was aware some card holders over 70 years old had been deleted from medical card lists during this database review.
When these affected people had contacted the HSE in Dublin, they had been told that their cards would remain valid until June.
Dr Daly said the HSE handling had been “shambolic” and had created a climate of “fear and uncertainty” among a vulnerable group of citizens.
Dr Daly said that when he had phoned the HSE central office, an official had informed him that the Government had told the HSE to offer a three- month reprieve to people at risk of losing their medical cards.
“They have compounded this problem and perpetuated it by the manner in which they are attempting to review medical card entitlement for over-70s,” Dr Daly said.
The HSE confirmed that a further 9,264 cards had been cancelled as a result of its review of lists to ensure that there were no incorrect or duplicate registrations on the medical card register.
It said it was “absolutely incorrect” to state that there had been any extension to the March 2nd deadline for the over-70s scheme.
