Up to 400,000 people will have to wait another couple of weeks for medical card eligibility
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The deadline for expansion of the medical card scheme to include up to 400,000 additional people has been pushed back to the end of this month, the Oireachtas Health Committee heard on Wednesday.
The expansion was promised in the Budget and had been expected to be in place in early June giving more people on low incomes access to these vital services. However, GPs have said there are not enough doctors in place to offer this all at once.
Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt said he is frustrated at the delays. “We would like for these negotiations to be complete for now, and for people who need these cards to have these cards,” he said. “We have been negotiating for some time now, and the new deadline is the end of this month.”
Sinn Féin health spokesman, David Cullinane, criticised the delays saying they echo the delays for providing free GP care for children. He said it is “unacceptable” people do not yet know when they will get the cards.
HSE CEO, Bernard Gloster, said there are now around 200,000 discretionary medical cards issued to people who do not meet the income levels.
Committee chair Sean Crowe said there is “a grey area” where people can be over the limit by extremely low sums and called for the whole system to be reviewed. Mr Watt also updated the committee on plans for elective hospitals, including in Glanmire in Cork.
“Progress is being made in delivering new elective hospitals in Cork and Galway. The HSE has secured a design team to immediately take forward the design process and site investigations are progressing,” he said. A site has not yet been chosen for the Dublin hospital, he added.
Mr Gloster also said plans are continuing for expansion of beds and bed replacements at Mallow hospital.
On issues around overall funding, Mr Gloster said he is examining the annual spend on management consultants.
“In terms of cost reduction and reduced dependency, I’ve given the CFO a target this week to reduce that €113m expenditure by 30% to commence in September for the last quarter of this year, and the full years of effect of that would be €35m to €40m.”
Mr Gloster said nationally the investment in “clinical front-line staff is unprecedented” for non-hospital care as required under Sláintecare and this is already showing results for patients.
Among the changes are 91% of patients with chronic disease are now fully managed routinely in primary care. However, he admitted crisis spots remain, mentioning 75 vacant psychiatrist roles as an example.
Social Democrats health spokeswoman Roisin Shortall welcomed this progress, saying it offers patients local care when they need it. However, she was critical of the “lack of coherent workforce planning”, saying it is a major problem when funding exists but staff cannot be found.
She queried the possibility of hiring GPs as salaried HSE staff, especially to address problems in the out-of-hours services for patients. “We shouldn’t be expecting people who are running services during the day to provide out-of-hours as well,” she said.
Mr Watt said they are looking at this as an option.