Marie Fleming case a 'lesson for HSE'

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said he accepts the Health Service Executive (HSE) has a lesson to learn following the difficulty terminally-ill multiple sclerosis sufferer Marie Fleming had in retaining her medical card.

He said there should be a simple and effective way of dealing with a person who was terminally ill. “There is a lesson to be learned in there by the HSE in the sense that there is a terminally ill person . . . and that is, unfortunately, not going to change,” he added.

“Therefore, there has to be an effective and compassionate and understanding process of the continuation of the card.”

Mr Kenny said it was something “that, unfortunately, in this case, points out where a change must occur in the process of renewal so that people do not have to deal with the verification of an illness that is terminal”.

He added that while he did not have the details of the case, his understanding was that the medical card was issued, not on a discretionary basis, but on entitlement on income and medical grounds.

“So it is a case of the renewal of an ordinary medical card,” he added. Mr Kenny said a person did not become “unterminally ill”.

'Outrageous and inhuman'
The Taoiseach was replying to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, who said Ms Fleming's case was known to the House and the entire country.

“Her condition is well known: she is terminally ill,” he added. “Yet she did not get her medical card automatically renewed.”

Independent TD John Halligan said what happened was "outrageous and inhuman'', adding that the Taoiseach knew the details of the case.

Mr Kenny said that if he had listened correctly to Marie’s partner, he was saying he was not objecting to the renewal process. The fact was that it appeared as if there was contact on a number of occasions from the HSE about the verification of her medical condition.

Mr Halligan said the HSE knew the facts. “That is outrageous,’’ he added. “She is critically ill.”

Mr Kenny said that once it was verified that a person had a terminal illness, whatever that illness was, there should be an understanding how to put in place an effective renewal process which took pressure off the person.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said the 2014 national service plan delivered by the HSE to Minister for Health James Reilly included almost €700 million in cuts and there was speculation that the figure could be closer to €1 billion.

Mr Adams said Ireland was "the worst small country in the western world in which to be sick."

“We were told at the weekend that patients with breast, bowel and cervical cancer fared worse here than in the vast majority of industrialised states from 2006 to 2011,” he added.

He said that last Friday the HSE had confirmed that 24 health agencies, including some hospitals, were paying top-ups to their managers.

“In a republic, or indeed in any decent society, citizens have a right to a first-class health service on the basis of need,” he added.

Three weeks
Mr Kenny said the Minister now had three weeks to reflect upon and consider the plan and comment on it.

“That work is already under way, so I do not want to comment any further on it except to confirm that it has been delivered,” he added.

Pressed further by Mr Adams, the Taoiseach said the Departments of the Taoiseach, Public Expenditure and Health were currently examining the plan.