asked the Minister for Health if he will give instructions to the health boards to issue general medical service cards to patients who hold long term illness cards; and if he will instruct the health boards to waive means tests in these cases.
Written Answers. - General Medical Service Cards.
51.
Medical cards are issued to those who, in the opinion of chief executive officers, are unable to provide general practitioner services for themselves and their dependants without undue hardship. In determining eligibility, chief executive officers take into account the financial and other general circumstances of applicants.
Those suffering from a long term illness which gives rise to substantial health care expenditure would have such costs taken into account and viewed sympathetically in that determination. Non-medical card patients with one of the 15 particular conditions scheduled under the long term illness scheme are entitled to receive drugs and medicines for that condition free of charge under the LTI scheme. As part of their continuing review of these patients' circumstances, health boards may issue a medical card, rather than a long term illness book, to patients suffering from one of these LTI scheduled conditions, where the patient's financial and other circumstances warrant this on an individual basis. Patients with a long term condition, outside the remit of the LTI scheme, are treated similarly. There could be no justification for issuing medical cards generally to persons, regardless of their means or circumstances, on the sole grounds that they are diagnosed as suffering from one of the 15 conditions scheduled under the LTI scheme.