Can’t you see I need help, Taoiseach?
Last year, Máire, 77, was told she had motor neurone disease. Last month, she was told her medical card was blocked. She has one message for Enda Kenny…
AN elderly Mayo woman with motor neurone disease whose medical card remains under review has issued a public plea to her local TD Enda Kenny.
Pensioner Máire, who is 77, said: ‘I would like to say to him, “Take one look at me, and tell me: do you think I don’t need help? I’m completely incapacitated.”
‘That’s what I’d say: take one look at me.’
This week, the Government was forced into an embarrassing Uturn when Junior Health Minister Alex White announced that his
‘I’m completely incapacitated’
officials were suspending the controversial review into the discretionary medical card system.
It meant that holders who had been notified of a review of their financial circumstances will hold on to their cards for now.
But there has been no clarity over what will happen to those who have already been informed that they are no longer entitled to the card.
Máire, who has asked for her surname not to be published, was diagnosed in May 2013.
She was entitled to a medical card under the Over-70s scheme, but in September – four months after being told that she had the progressive neurological condition motor neurone disease (MND), she was told that she was no longer entitled to it.
Máire appealed the decision and, following correspondence from her GP and local TD Dara Calleary, the card was returned to her with an expiry date of 2017.
However, last month her doctor told her that her medical card had once more been ‘blocked’.
With reviews suspended, it appears she will keep it – at least until new legislation is passed. A HSE spokeswoman said only that this process would not take long, though no timeline was available.
Máire has the support of her neighbours and her daughters Sharon, who lives nearby, and Dublinbased Helen.
But MND places an extraordinary strain on the body. The medical card provides essential extra support. A home help calls every morning, and access to a HSE physiotherapist is vital.
Losing the medical card means facing drug costs of €144 per month. That sum relates to MND-specific drugs only. Patients are prone to chest infections and any antibiotic prescribed to treat those conditions would have to be paid for separately.
In addition, the HSE supplies medical equipment through the medical card for the disease that impairs mobility.
Fidelma Rutledge, a nurse with the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association, said: ‘You cannot put a cost on the equipment. Their needs are constantly changing. It could be a hoist, it could be feeding tubes. It changes so quickly.’
The disease’s devastating rate of progress is plain to see. The HSEsupplied walking frame Máire received in April is almost useless as her legs have lost so much strength since then.
And Máire has noticed other side- effects to the condition. ‘I’m frozen all the time,’ she said. ‘I have to have the heat on a lot, even now. If someone is sitting there in a vest, I would still be cold. I can’t put on a fire because I could fall.’
Máire, a former pharmacist, said she was stunned to realise that a
‘Needs are changing all the time’
diagnosis of MND did not guarantee her a medical card.
The pensioner, who saved some of her income over her career, receives a pension and a widow’s pension. It was enough to push her over the income limit for the card.
Before being told by the doctor that she no longer had access to the medical card, she had received correspondence from officials.
‘I got another form but I felt I had my card already,’ she explained this week. ‘I didn’t think about it too much and the forms got mislaid. Then they blocked it.’
She said: ‘They were asking for the same papers as last year. They have my information on file, I asked them on the phone, and she said they did. All this administration is just wasting more money.’
Daughter Helen said the entire family has been ‘very upset’ at hearing that her mother’s medical card was under threat.
‘If those supports are gone, it would be hard on all of us – especially my sister Sharon,’ she said. ‘We don’t know where to go.’
Máire, who is waiting for a HSE occupational therapist to assess her for a powered wheelchair, says the manner of reviewing the discretionary medical card scheme has been ‘unfair’.
‘Couples can have €900, but it’s €500 for me,’ said the pensioner, who wants to continue living at her home for as long as practical. ‘I’m moderately over that,’ she said.
Máire’s disease is not one of the 13 conditions covered by the Long Term Illness Scheme that guarantees a medical card.
But according to the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association (IMNDA), 300 people are living with the condition in Ireland at any one time. A spokeswoman for the IMNDA said the organisation was delighted with this week’s decision to halt the reviews – but added that the situation remained unclear.