Enhanced medical care for industrial school survivors 'not working'

Miriam Moriarty Owens on hunger strike outside Leinster House in November last year. She said industrial school survivors are being left 'distressed and embarrassed' as they struggle to access healthcare they were promised under enhanced medical cards. File photo: Leah Farrell / © RollingNews.ie

Industrial school survivors are being left “distressed and embarrassed” as they struggle to access healthcare they were promised under enhanced medical cards, according to Miriam Moriarty Owens.

Ms Moriarty Owens, a survivor who went on hunger strike a year ago over the same issues, said there appears to be a “major breakdown in communication between the Department of Social Protection and healthcare providers, with dentists, chiropodists, physiotherapists and pharmacists seemingly unaware of the entitlements available to survivors”.

“They’re telling people the enhanced medical care is working, and people are telling me it’s not,” she said.

“I emailed every chemist in Kerry and not one of them knew about this card and what it was for. One rang me back and said they wouldn’t have ever known only for my email.” 

She said survivors are presenting their enhanced medical cards to healthcare providers only to find that staff were unsure what the cards entitled them to.

Ms Moriarty Owens said the situation is particularly difficult for older survivors "who should not have to explain or defend their entitlements when seeking medical care".

“It is morally wrong. These people are ageing. They don’t know what do to,” she said.

She described one case involving a survivor who needed a shingles vaccine and was told it would cost €500. “I said, how can someone pay €500 and then reimburse them?” she said.

She also said survivors are continuing to experience problems obtaining other supports and added that the same problems are being experienced with dental treatment.

“I lost a crown. I am trying to get a dentist to do it. I don’t have €1,000 to pay upfront and claim it back,” she said. “You shouldn’t have to beg.” 

She added that although survivors had been promised an enhanced medical card, she questioned what was actually “enhanced” about the system if people could not access the services.

Ms Moriarty Owens said the lack of communication between Government departments and the professionals expected to deliver the services is at the heart of the problem.

The concerns come almost a year after four industrial school survivors, including Miriam Moriarty Owens, ended a 51-day hunger strike following assurances from Government that their demands for enhanced medical cards and other supports would be addressed.

Even our pensions were not meant to be means tested, but they are.

Ms Moriarty Owens has been protesting at the Dáil for the past number of weeks and will return there on Tuesday. "I sleep it and I eat it,” she said.

“I do feel guilty. We did it for survivors, not for myself and I believe it was only ever agreed to ahead of Catherine Connolly’s inauguration to get us off the streets, it was a rush job."

The departments of social protection and of the Taoiseach have been contacted for comment.