Medical cards a ‘lottery’ for motor neurone sufferers

An increasing number of people with motor neurone disease are having their medical cards withdrawn, while many applicants are being refused outright by the HSE.

The medical card situation has now become a lottery, according to a consultant neurologist who cares for the majority of Irish patients with the disease.

In a damning rebuke of the HSE response to medical card requests, Professor Orla Hardiman described how the HSE makes her patients endure a tortuous process when applying for assistance after which they often face refusal.