‘Quicker getting through to the Pope than HSE’

The HSE South will write to Health Minister James Reilly over ongoing medical card application delays, after claims “you would be quicker getting through to the Pope” than the people running the service.

Speaking at the latest HSE South regional health forum, councillors hit out at a growing list of complaints over the centralisation of the health support.

Since July last year, all medical card renewals and applications have been centralised at the primary care reimbursement service in Finglas, Dublin.

While 974,712 medical cards have since been issued, the centralisation process created a backlog of almost 30,000 cases by January.

Despite the HSE’s insistence that three in four applications are decided on within a week, and nine in 10 within three weeks, councillors at the forum noted these figures only refer to completed applications and not those where there are disputed missing details.

After hearing constit-uents’ concerns at the meeting, Fine Gael councillor Hilary Quinlan said “you would be quicker getting through to the Pope” for an answer to specific cases than the HSE itself.

Forum chairman Liam Ahearn agreed to write to Mr Reilly voicing Munster’s frustration.

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