asked the Minister for Health why a doctor is not permitted to prescribe a product (name supplied) for a medical card patient who as a terminal cancer case is unable to swallow solid foods.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Medical Card Patient.
14.
The product in question is a food, not a drug or medicine. Under section 59 of the Health Act, 1970, only drugs and medicines may be prescribed under the general medical service. It is not, therefore, possible for me to have it prescribed as a drug or medicine.
However, if a doctor certifies that a patient needs a certain type of food, the health board have authority and do, in fact, arrange for its supply through the home assistance service. I intend to speak with the chief executive officers of health boards this month to explore whether the product can be provided by means other than the home assistance service.
I would like to stress again that any medical card holder whose doctor certifies that he or she needs the product can receive it at present from health boards in adequate quantities. If the Deputy knows of any such patient whose doctor has certified that this product is necessary and who has not received it, he should inform me immediately. If the Deputy has a particular medical card holder in mind, he should, as I told him privately some weeks ago, give me or the health board the details and that medical card patient will have that product without delay, assuming a doctor certifies need.
I would ask the Minister is he aware that this patient could have been admitted to hospital and it would have cost the State at least £40 a week? What I was asking for was that the State would contribute 75p at a maximum to provide this product for a person who could not swallow solid food and, in those circumstances, it was a medicinal product. The patient has since died and it does not matter any more.
May I ask what the inference is in the Deputy's last remark?
It was a very important point that the product should have been made available. It would not have cost the State anything. In the case of a person suffering from terminal cancer, 75p was nothing.
First, I should like to make it clear that I did not and still do not know the name of the patient or the address of the patient. Secondly, as I have said in the reply and as I have said repeatedly over the last two weeks, while the procedure for obtaining this product may be reprehensible to some people, it cannot be prescribed as a medicine; it is a food; but if, as I have said, it is prescribed by a doctor or is advised or recommended that this product should be made available, I have given the assurance, as I have previously done, that the product can be made available through the health board.
On this point, all I am asking is that in the case of a medical card patient, an old age pensioner living alone in a situation such as this, the doctor should have the power to prescribe this product. That is a very simple request on behalf of many old persons who, because of certain medical conditions, are unable to take solid foods. In their case this would be a medicinal product. I am asking this for persons living on their own, holders of medical cards——
The Deputy is making a long statement.
That is what I am asking the Minister to review. If it were available on prescription to these persons the cost would not amount to more than 75p.
I must call the next question. Question No. 15, please.
Certainly, a doctor would not abuse this power to write such a prescription for an old age pensioner with a medical card.
I am not saying that any doctor would abuse it. I am merely saying that under the Health Act, 1970, section 59, a doctor can only prescribe drugs and medicines. As far as my information and the advice given to me is concerned it is that the product is a food and not a medicine. I appreciate the difficulty of a person who needs the product and of the doctor who says that the product is required but as far as the mechanics of obtaining the product are concerned, I have assured the Deputy, as I assure the House, that if any doctor recommends that this product is necessary for a patient, it can be given, and given very quickly.
Question No. 15.
May I ask the Minister——
We cannot debate this. The Deputy has been given a great deal of latitude on this question. Please do not abuse the privilege of Question Time.
With your permission, I should like to raise the matter on the adjournment.
The Chair will communicate with the Deputy.