asked the Minister for Health if he will state (1) the number of people who received blue cards under the Health Act, 1953, in 1955/56; (2) the average time which elapses between the application for and the receipt of blue cards (a) in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Water-ford, and (b) in rural areas; and (3) the number of people who received medical attention under the red ticket system in each of the five years prior to the institution of the blue card scheme.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Health Blue Cards.
In regard to the first part of the question, I have not the precise information requested by the Deputy but the number of medical cards issued between 1st August, 1954, when the relevant regulations came into operation, and 29th February, 1956, was 174,237 covering 584,454 persons.
The information requested in the second part of the question is not available in my Department and, in order to obtain it, it would be necessary to inquire as to the position from every health authority concerned. Each of these authorities would have to extract all recently decided applications from their records and compute the time lag between the date of application and the date of decision in order to ascertain the average. This would involve an expenditure of time and labour in the offices of every health authority which, in my view, would not be justified. If, however, the Deputy has reason to believe that there is an unreasonable time lag in particular areas, and furnishes me with particulars, I shall be glad to investigate the matter.
In regard to the third part of the question, the only information available in my Department in regard to the number of persons who received medical assistance under the former system is that contained in returns furnished by district medical officers of new cases attended on "dispensary" or "visiting" tickets in each half-year. The Deputy will probably be aware that experience has shown that in many cases these returns were grossly inaccurate. They have now been discontinued. In these circumstances, it would be futile to attempt to extract the information required from the source mentioned.