Medical cards will be processed in 15 days, vows Harney

ELDERLY patients will have their medical card applications processed in 15 days, Health Minister Mary Harney has promised following concern that a new centralised system left over-70s waiting up to four months for their entitlement to free health care.

Ms Harney took almost six months to reply to demands for action from the Oireachtas Health Committee, who said a central applications system had made older people worried and under financial stress.

The Health Committee wrote to the minister last March demanding “urgent action” after applications had gone missing since the system was centralised in Finglas, Dublin, and older people were left on phone lines for more than 30 minutes without answers on their applications.