Expert panel will analyse range of chronic illnesses

People anxious to find out if they will qualify for a medical card based on their medical condition will have to wait until the autumn at the earliest for an expert panel to decide who qualifies.

A range of medical conditions will be looked at by the expert panel which will report back in September.

The HSE say that a patient representative as well as medical experts will be consulted about which group of people with conditions should be automatically eligible to access services.

“We’ve pulled together a very wide-ranging group who will analyse all of the chronic long term and life-limiting conditions that we know exist,” said HSE director general Tony O’Brien.

The expert panel will be chaired by Frank Keane, a past president of the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, with 23 medical professionals and a patient representative, Marie Price Bolger, the chief executive of Trustus, a south Dublin support group.

The panel will examine and recommend the range of medical conditions that should be considered when determining medical card eligibility, the HSE added.

This process would not relate to people whose discretionary medical cards had already been withdrawn as that was a separate issue the Government needed to consider and possibly through legislation, said a HSE spokeswoman.

Meanwhile, pressure continues to pile on James Reilly over the medical card debacle. He blamed his Cabinet colleagues for the mess this week saying there was a lack of “political will”.

However, Fine Gael backbenchers have begun openly questioning if he is suitable to stay in his post.

Speaking on RTÉ, Kerry TD Brendan Griffin said a full Cabinet reshuffle was now necessary.

Asked whether Dr Reilly should go, he said there were ministers doing a good job but that there were some who had disappointed voters.

He refused to say if he had confidence in Dr Reilly and instead said he was supportive of what he was doing.

“This entire medical card debacle, which has been going on for a long time now but which we’re only been listened to very recently about, I’m very concerned about getting that sorted out,” said Mr Griffin.

The Fine Gael TD also said that the health budget should be spared any more cuts.

“The minister shouldn’t have stood over €600m in cuts in his budget for 2014,” he said. “Health is a life and death department.”