Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 6 July 2017
186. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Health the processing times for medical card applications; his plans to allocate additional resources to the section in order to address the delays; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31929/17]
View answerMedical cards and GP visit cards are processed by the National Medical Card Unit (NMCU) in the HSE. I am aware that the processing times for medical cards increased in recent months. The HSE has informed my Department that this is primarily due to a reduction in the number of processing staff within the NMCU at present.
Processing times for applications/reviews can also be affected where supporting documentation required is not supplied or is incomplete. In such circumstances the HSE will correspond with applicants specifying the additional information required to progress the assessment of their application.
I have asked the HSE to respond directly on the measures being taken to address the current processing times.
The HSE provides weekly statistics on turnaround times on its website: http://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/schemes/mc.
