Asthma, arthritis, and hearing problems — but no medical card

Katie Connolly will turn six in February.

And while all children younger than her have been promised free GP care shortly after that, she will have to start paying for her doctor visits, which she needs almost every week.

Katie, from Douglas in Cork, was granted a discretionary medical card when she was born — not because of her age but because she has Down’s syndrome and greater medical needs than most other children.

She has a number of conditions, including asthma and hearing problems. Last year, she was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis, which causes severe pain. Just months later, she was told her medical card was being removed. Her parents, Ray and Jackie, have since secured an emergency medical card, which runs out on Nov 13, and they are worried about the choice they will have to make after that.

“It will be deciding on whether she goes to speech and language therapy or whether she goes to a doctor,” said her mother, Jackie.

“Or it might come down to whether we can afford her occupational therapy sessions or whether we should stop buying some of her medications. These are the horrible decisions we are being asked to make.”

Katie attends weekly speech and language therapy sessions, which will increase from €40 each to €80 when she loses her medical card. Weekly occupational therapy sessions will cost €50 a week.

She visits the GP almost weekly, at a cost of €65 each time. She also needs orthotics to help her walk — at a cost of €300.

Her parents will have to pay €75 for her monthly visits to Crumlin Hospital — when the pain associated with her arthritis becomes too much and she gets injections to relieve it — which are free of charge under the medical cards.

“I think it is ridiculous that a child with special needs has their card taken away, while another child who has no special needs gets given one just because they are under six” said Jackie.

“Instead of a scheme that distinguished between different ages, they should distinguish between the children who really need it and those who don’t.”

Jackie says her family are just above the income limit for a medical card, but that no consideration is taken of the extra costs associated with Katie’s health needs.

She is angry at the Government’s claim that some people are losing discretionary medical cards because the processing system has been centralised to Dublin.

“They have moved it up to Dublin so that it can be more consistent — more consistent in not giving out cards instead of more consistent in giving them out,” she said.

Claims that there has been no change of policy on discretionary medical cards “makes me very cross, because it cannot be true”, said Jackie.

“I don’t know how they can justify taking them off children with a disability.”