Medical card expiry date?

jessiejam

If a medical card has expiry of 12/13 does that mean the end of the month or 1st?
Was in a pharmacy yesterday for a prescription and was told that the medical card is no longer valid as my GP visit card has been issued and is valid from the 1st of December. The pharmacist wanted €144 from me!

As far as i was concerned this was going to be my last med car prescription.

The last time i was on the phone to HSE about the card the lady said don't be panicking sure your card is valid until the 31st of Dec.

Pharmacist said the expiry date is the 1st of the Dec!

Im on long term meds and have a med card valid until 12/13. This has now been taken from me and i've been issued with a gp visit card from Jan 2014 or so I thought.

Thing is I went to a different pharmacy on the 16th of the month for antibiotics and there wasn't a issue at all?

Going to ring them tomorrow

Can anyone shed any light?

Thanks

suds1984

Generally it is the end of the month. The HSE have been know to change the date on the card to a shorter date. You can check online by entering your medical card number on the following form https://www.sspcrs.ie/portal/checker/pub/check

jessiejam

thanks a mill for your reply.

Ive checked that portal and its relating to my new card (gp visit) valid from the 1st dec 2013 to the 31st dec 2015.
Its not showing anything for the medical card.

thats what she was showing me yesterday in the pharmacy!
Im going to have to ring them in the morning

I reckon they just back dated the gp card to cover me.

But Im fairly sure the med card is valid until the end of the month!

myIdea

All I can say is, your pharmacists is wrong...

Its common sense that with any expiry date its either an exact date or a month.

As in your case the 12th Month in the year 2013 which basically means, when that month passes your card is no longer valid.

...your card cant be expired as we are still in the 12th month.

On a side note... same thing happened to me last month... my card expired November, however the pharmacists allowed me my prescription this month (first week), even though my card was clearly out of date.

Balagan

It used to be written on the back of the Medical Card that the HSE reserved the right to cancel/withdraw the Medical card because of a change in circumstances of the holder. Even if it is no longer written there (and it may still be) that is still the case. Validity is dependant on eligibility, not on the expiry date.

danjo-xx

OP it looks like they reviewed you medical card and decided you were no longer entitled to it and replaced it with a GP visit only card with immediate effect.

Appeal the loss of your medical card.