Medical Card delays

LegacyUser

Hi,

I have been waiting for my medical card to be re-issued since the start of March and as am only in receipt of One parent family (€247 per week) I have no money to buy the meds I need.

I have been on anti depressants for over a year now and in the last month I had to try and make them last by only taking them every few days and now I have only one left. I also have to get various other medications including asthma inhalers, anti-histamines and gastro drugs for acid reflux problems. I need to buy all of these in the next few days and they will come to approx €250.

I have rang the medical card people, gotten my doctor to fax them, rang again and they keep telling me it will be another 2 weeks or so.

I think my gall bladder is playing up again as have spent the last few days in severe pain but I cant afford to go to the doctor and the stress of it all is driving me mad.

I am hoping someone in here has a suggestion of what I can do to try and get some of this sorted before I go over the edge.

Ickle Magoo

Hey there,

Have you spoken to your community welfare officer? I think they are able to give one-off payments for exceptional circumstances. Perhaps give your local health office a bell as well and see if you can get an appointment with one of their doctors.

All the best.

Lola92

Also in the mean time you can apply for a DPS (Drug Payment Scheme) Card. If you ask in your chemist they can give you a form to fill out for it. This means that you won't have to pay over €135 in one calender month for medication for your family.

Torakx

Sorry but i must say this.
Depression,acid reflux,asthma,skin irritation,joint pain,nervousness and many many more symptoms are also signs of candida overgrowth.
I had alot of these things including at the later stage, severe cramps in my abdomen(or my intestines).

Research candida and make sure this isnt the reason all those symptoms are present.
If it is the reason, your doctor will not diagnose this and you will need to see a nutritionist,or insist your doctor send away samples to test for it.
Id advise when you get your medical card to go to a doctor of course and get tests done.
Until then it might be worth a look just in case.
Its most commonly caused by taking anti-biotics.So if you been on them for a prolonged period or high dosage it can cause this illness.

Feel free to pm me if you need any info.
I too am broke and in need of my medical card,so im thanksfull fo the advise given by other posts here

Taltos

Torakx - we know you are trying to help but please do not continue to post advice that is in breach of our charter, it can result in a warning/infraction or even a ban without a prior warning.

It is not the done thing on the PI or RI forums to ask an OP to pm/msn/skype/email you. This is done for two reasons:

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medical or professional advice
As per the site rules http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/faq.p...nes_medicalpro

Taltos


...Questioning a mod action in a thread in the Personal Issues forum is considered off topic and unhelpful posting and may result in a ban from the forum.

edellc

OP you can ring them and if by some miracle you get through you can ask how long it will take, or you can go to their office and they will give you a letter stating your medical card it being renewed/approved (sometimes the card is approved but it takes months for it to get printed and sent out to you) you can give this to the pharmacist and still get your meds on your medical card

LegacyUser

Ickle Magoo wrote: »

Hey there,

Have you spoken to your community welfare officer? I think they are able to give one-off payments for exceptional circumstances. Perhaps give your local health office a bell as well and see if you can get an appointment with one of their doctors.

All the best.

Hi, I rang my community welfare office and was told that they dont do payments for medical cards like that so that avenue is closed. I could go to my own doctor and they would delay processing my bill but then I wont be able to afford to get the prescription.

@Lola - I cant afford to buy the meds to qualify for the dps.

@Torakx - I have had asthma since I was a baby due to getting pneumonia then and had eceama since birth. My depression is stemming from post traumatic stress following an accident a year and half ago.

The gall bladder/acid reflux is probably a result of taking anti inflamatories for one of my injuries from the accident.

That said, I will look into the Candida thing as my mother had it years ago and we all went on a special diet for it which I no longer follow.

@edellc I have rang them a few times and each time they tell me that they are doing the means test even tho they have had my bank statements for months now.

So frustrated. I dont know what else to do but thinking I might have to ask my local St Vincent DePauls for help coz I cant put my health at risk any longer.

happyfish

Have you tried having a chat with your doctor and seeing if he would see you for free, given the circumstances? Where I used to work would do this if a patients medical card was up for renewal or out of date, since the whole system is so flawed. I seem to remember they can claim some of this money back , I don't 100% remember how it works though. I know you'd have still have the issue of the medication but if the doctor was seriously concerned he might be able to pull some strings or help you out somehow. It's worth a try anyway! Please try not to worry it will get sorted somehow xx

I might be totally off the mark, but I think talking to a local TD can help. I know it sounds strange but I'm 90% sure I've heard of them helping medical cards through on occasion. Even if it doesn't help it through, it's definitely worth a complaint to your TD.

Joey the lips

Call to your chemist. There is an exceptional hardship means system for anti depressents. Its not guaranteed but it might work

Make an appointment to see a TD(Dont hold your breath though)

Have you changed address since the issue of the last one. Because a reminder is usually sent out and if you filled it in and sent it back on time then your old medical card despite expiry is suppose to be valid.

gosuckonalemon

sickandbroke wrote: »

Hi,

I have been waiting for my medical card to be re-issued since the start of March and as am only in receipt of One parent family (€247 per week) I have no money to buy the meds I need.

I have been on anti depressants for over a year now and in the last month I had to try and make them last by only taking them every few days and now I have only one left. I also have to get various other medications including asthma inhalers, anti-histamines and gastro drugs for acid reflux problems. I need to buy all of these in the next few days and they will come to approx €250.

I have rang the medical card people, gotten my doctor to fax them, rang again and they keep telling me it will be another 2 weeks or so.

I think my gall bladder is playing up again as have spent the last few days in severe pain but I cant afford to go to the doctor and the stress of it all is driving me mad.

I am hoping someone in here has a suggestion of what I can do to try and get some of this sorted before I go over the edge.

No family in the country has to pay more than a total of 132 euro for monthly meds on the drugs payment scheme. Any pharmacist or HSE worker will tell you that.

If your meds cost 250e per month and your childrens cost 500e per month, the most you will have to pay is 132e per month.

If a billionaire, living in Ireland has the same problem the most they will pay is 132e per month.

It's called the DRUGS PAYMENTS SCHEME.

sickandbroke wrote: »

Hi, I rang my community welfare office and was told that they dont do payments for medical cards like that so that avenue is closed. I could go to my own doctor and they would delay processing my bill but then I wont be able to afford to get the prescription.

@Lola - I cant afford to buy the meds to qualify for the dps.

@Torakx - I have had asthma since I was a baby due to getting pneumonia then and had eceama since birth. My depression is stemming from post traumatic stress following an accident a year and half ago.

The gall bladder/acid reflux is probably a result of taking anti inflamatories for one of my injuries from the accident.

That said, I will look into the Candida thing as my mother had it years ago and we all went on a special diet for it which I no longer follow.

@edellc I have rang them a few times and each time they tell me that they are doing the means test even tho they have had my bank statements for months now.

So frustrated. I dont know what else to do but thinking I might have to ask my local St Vincent DePauls for help coz I cant put my health at risk any longer.

What are you on about? Have you researched it at all? There is no qualification for the DPS scheme. If you have a PPS number you are entitled to the DPS scheme.

Joey the lips wrote: »

Call to your chemist. There is an exceptional hardship means system for anti depressents. Its not guaranteed but it might work

Make an appointment to see a TD(Dont hold your breath though)

Have you changed address since the issue of the last one. Because a reminder is usually sent out and if you filled it in and sent it back on time then your old medical card despite expiry is suppose to be valid.

No there is no such scheme. This is complete bollix.

Curry Addict

the medical card people will extend your entitlement while waiting for re approval. i had to ring them for this twice last year as the wait was long but they were happy to do it.

woodoo

This is a scandal. Medical cards should never have been moved to Dublin from the local offices.

Hold on to any receipts and try and claim back for for your medications from the date of application. They used to give refunds.

LegacyUser

gosuckonalemon wrote: »

No family in the country has to pay more than a total of 132 euro for monthly meds on the drugs payment scheme. Any pharmacist or HSE worker will tell you that.

If your meds cost 250e per month and your childrens cost 500e per month, the most you will have to pay is 132e per month.

If a billionaire, living in Ireland has the same problem the most they will pay is 132e per month.

It's called the DRUGS PAYMENTS SCHEME.



What are you on about? Have you researched it at all? There is no qualification for the DPS scheme. If you have a PPS number you are entitled to the DPS scheme.



No there is no such scheme. This is complete bollix.

Sorry what I meant by qualifying for it was that I hadnt the 132 euro to buy meds for the month so that I would get the rest free.

Things are looking up a little today. I rang the medical card people as I usually do on a Monday and the guy I was talking to today was much nicer than the fellow last week and he actually looked things up for me and said he would push for mine to be processed ASAP. He said that I should have it within the next 10-15 days which means there is finally light at the end of the tunnel.

After having a bad cold all weekend on top of everything a friend gave me a lend of money to go to the doctor and I talked things over with him. I explained my situation to him and he has suggested that the only way to push things along on the medical card front was to go to the media about it, which my brother has been encouraging me to do for the last few weeks so I mite "talk to Joe". He said my gall bladder was flared up but that since the pain had died down that it might be subsiding and it hopefully will be ok. Thankfully my cold hasnt gone into my chest, just in my sinus (which is probably down to the fact that I havent been able to afford my nasal drip spray to prevent this problem!) and that the best thing was paracetamol.

This afternoon I had an appointment with my psychiatrist and explained things to him too and he has changed my meds to ones that cost just €12.96 instead of the €50 ones I was on so that is a relief and I was able to buy them today and start taking them after pretty much 2 weeks without meds.

I intend speaking to a TD that I know quite well once I get this head cold gone coz I can barely think straight and feel like crap so will be more articulate later in the week and see what he can do.

My doctor told me today that he has had so many people in the same kind of situation and that he feels that they are doing these delay tactics to reduce the amount of spend on the scheme but its people like me that really need the help that are getting screwed. I was saying to him I am so lucky that I am only moderately ill and dont have cancer or something coz the stress of this would send me over the edge.

Ickle Magoo

Glad you got sorted with your meds OP.

I'll lock this thread as your issue has now been resolved.

All the very best. :cool: