Recent Medical Card Delays

Visit to the Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) Centre in Finglas. 

The Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) is part of the HSE and manages medical card applications, now in one centralised location off the North Road in Finglas.

I visited the centre on Friday 2nd March along with members of the Dáil Committee for Health and Children. Many people are aware of the recent delays in processing applications and the visit was to see what PCRS can do to improve some of the issues.

Some of the delays have been caused by an increase in applications in recent times, as well as the changeover to one centralised office for dealing with applications.

It is clear that these delays are not acceptable and senior management made commitments that the backlog would be cleared by next month, as changes to their system and processes have full effect.

Common Sense Solutions

PCRS announced some new changes on Friday at the meeting which will go some way to bringing down the backlog of applications.

These changes allow local GPs to respond in a flexible way to medical card applications in some cases.

GPs can now directly:

*** Add a new baby to a family's medical card at the touch of a button

*** Add a Sensitive Renewal  - for one year - in a case where a patient's card is about to expire and they may be unable to reapply due to medical or special social circumstances

*** Reinstate a patient's medical card - for four months - if he/she was removed in error or did not respond to a review letter for certain reasons

GPs can now also:

*** Remove a patient from a card if they have passed away or are no longer resident in the country

*** Reinstate a patient's card if they come back out of a state medical facility directly

These are positive steps that allow GPs to respond to some of the problems I hear about on a daily basis. It is also to be welcomed that these changes will be renewed regularly with direct talks between the HSE and the Irish Medical Organisation.

I can understand the stress that a delay in an application can cause to individuals and families and from visiting the centre it is clear that every effort is being made to have the backlog resolved.

More Information

If you need advice on the medical card application process, or if you are having delays with your application, please give me a call on 01 618 3280 or john.lyons@oir.ie and I will do what I can to help.

For more information on the medical card system and the process involved in applying, you can also click on the links below:

Citizen's Information

HSE Website

www.medicalcard.ie