Vol. 516 No. 1
75 Mr. Enright asked the Minister for Health and Children the plans, if any, he has to direct health boards to allocate medical cards on a personal basis to patients who have a hole in the heart, are on hospital waiting lists and, having had the operation, require constant medical care for many years. [7143/00]
Entitlement to health services in Ireland is primarily based on means. Under the Health Act, 1970, determination of eligibility for medical cards is the responsibility of the chief executive officer of the appropriate health board. Medical cards are issued to persons who, in the opinion of the chief executive officer, are unable to provide general practitioner medical and surgical services for themselves and their dependants without undue hardship.
Income guidelines are drawn up to assist in the determination of a person's eligibility and these are revised annually in line with the consumer price index. However the guidelines are not statutorily binding and even though a person's income exceeds the guidelines, a medical card may still be awarded if the chief executive officer considers that his/her medical needs or other circumstances would justify this. Medical cards may also be awarded to individual family members on this basis.
In view of this special provision, I do not feel it justifiable, nor did previous Governments, on health policy grounds, to extend an automatic entitlement to a medical card to any specific group without any reference to their means, as a general rule. It is open to all persons to apply to the chief executive officer of the appropriate health board for health services if they are unable to provide these services for themselves or their dependants without hardship.
It is important to note that possession of a medical card does not affect an individual's position on a hospital waiting list which is determined on the grounds of clinical urgency.
Non-medical card holders are entitled to a broad range of health services including an entitlement to public hospital and public consultant treatment subject only to modest statutory charges and out-patient services free of charge. There are also a number of schemes which provide assistance towards the cost of medication. Under the drug payments scheme a person and his-her dependants will not have to pay more than £42 in any calendar month for approved prescribed drugs, medicines and appliances.
76 Mr. Enright asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of medical cards allocated for each health board area at the latest date for which figures are available; the percentage of ratio for population; the number of discretionary medical cards allocated; and the number and percentage of these medical cards in each health board area. [7075/00]
The following information has been supplied by the GMS (Payments) Board for each health board area in relation to medical cards and reflects the position as at 31 December 1999
|
Health Board |
No. of eligible persons |
No. of Eligiblepersons as % of Board pop. |
|
Eastern |
334,031 |
25.78 |
|
Midland |
72,859 |
35.45 |
|
Mid-Western |
96,734 |
30.51 |
|
North-Eastern |
112,673 |
36.96 |
|
North-Western |
98,254 |
46.31 |
|
South-Eastern |
137,281 |
35.06 |
|
Southern |
170,093 |
31.12 |
|
Western |
142,262 |
40.37 |
|
Total |
1,164,187 |
31.42 |
