15 Beal 2014, 15:28
A delegation from the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children met with senior Health Service Executive staff at the the HSE’s medical card centre in Finglas today Thursday, 15th May 2014 to consider a number of issues in relation to the processing and issuing of medical cards.
Committee Chairman, Jerry Buttimer TD said: “It was a useful and productive meeting with senior HSE staff where frank views were expressed and members recounted very difficult and emotive experiences of their constituents in relation to medical cards.
At our meeting today, the HSE assured the committee delegation that it would not ask people with life-long conditions if these had changed. This is an important assurance. It is imperative that all people dealing with the medical card processing unit are treated with empathy and compassion; this approach must be enshrined in all correspondence and in all conversations between staff and those applying for medical cards.
We were also told that the processing of medical cards was not being outsourced to any other country, but that part of its data capture function was being carried out by a German company based in Ireland following an EU tender.
We also met with HSE staff working on the ground in sometimes challenging circumstances and had an opportunity to see at first hand the work involved in processing medical cards at the centre.”
Media Enquiries to:
Ciaran Brennan,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Communications Unit,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2
Committee Membership:
Deputies: Jerry Buttimer (Chair), Catherine Byrne, Ciara Conway (Vice-Chair), Regina Doherty, Robert Dowds, Peter M Fitzpatrick, Seamus Healy, Billy Kelleher, Eamonn Maloney, Clare Daly, Sandra McLellan, Dan Neville, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin and Robert Troy
Senators: Colm Burke, John Crown, John Gilroy, Imelda Henry, Marc Mac Sharry and Jillian Van Turnhout