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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 23 Nov 1960

Vol. 185 No. 1

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Medical Attention for Medical Card Holder.

6.

asked the Minister for Health what steps should be taken by the holder of a medical card who is unable to obtain medical attention in a case of urgent sickness.

The holder of a medical card is entitled to free general practitioner services from the Medical Officer of the dispensary district in which he resides. The Medical Officer is required to provide such services for the person concerned at the local dispensary or in the person's own home or elsewhere as the circumstances may require. If the Medical Officer is unable to provide the services owing to absence on leave or some other reason, the health authority is obliged to ensure that medical services will continue to be made available in the district by a substitute Medical Officer.

As far as I am aware, the foregoing arrangements are generally satisfactory. Should the Deputy know of particular circumstances in which urgent and necessary medical attention was not available for the holder of a medical card, perhaps he would be good enough to let me have the details and I shall have the matter inquired into.

Would the Minister consider it reasonable for the health authority to make an order that a doctor residing in an adjacent dispensary district would come to the rescue or should come to the rescue when required to do so in such circumstances as urgency?

If the Deputy had put that question to me instead of the one which appears on the Order Paper, I would have answered it specifically, but I am not in a position to answer it now. I can only give the Deputy what is the general position. If he has any particular or special case, I shall have it investigated or, if he has a particular set of circumstances to deal with, then I shall provide again the answer he requires.

Where the local medical officer makes no arrangements, surely the medical officer in the next dispensary district should be bound to come to the rescue?

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