Children ‘to get medical cards back’

Sick children who lost medical cards in a recent HSE cull are to have them reinstated within weeks, according to parents who met yesterday with the health minister.

The parents, who launched the Our Children’s Health national campaign last month, were given the undertaking by Minister James Reilly at a meeting attended by the country’s most senior health officials, including Department of Health secretary general Dr Ambrose McLoughlin and HSE chief Tony O’Brien.

After weeks of intense lobbying, the parents said Mr Reilly made a “fulsome apology” for the “hurt and distress” the removal of discretionary medical cards had caused to so many.