Protest campaign: A woman who is on medication for life after undergoing two kidney transplant operations is planning a campaign of resistance over increased health charges which came into effect this month.
Tracey Hyde from Stoneybatter in Dublin is particularly angry at a change to the Drugs Payment Scheme which means she has to pay more for drugs every month before the State will pick up the excess on her drugs bill.
She said yesterday she was shocked to discover that from this month she would have to pay €85 a month for medication, some €7 more than she had to pay last month and €15 more than she had to pay early last year.
"This is a spectacular jump in a year and it's hardly in line with inflation," she claimed as she handed in a letter of protest at the Department of Health.
In her letter she urged the Tánaiste and Minister for Health Ms Harney to reconsider the increased charge.
"As a result of this hike, I'm now paying at least €1,000 a year on medication. It's crippling," she said. "The point I want to make is my medication is not a luxury, it is a necessity and I feel the Minister is picking on a very vulnerable group of people because we just have no choice in the matter. We have to pay this.
"I feel if it were road tax or ESB that was going up this much, you would have people talking. There was a lot of giving out about toll charges in Dublin going up 30 cent recently but people can choose to use a toll road. They have a choice but I can't just stop taking my tablets or I'd lose my kidney," she added.
Ms Hyde was born to Irish parents in London and moved to their native Dublin about six years ago. Having been born with a rare kidney problem, she was on dialysis throughout her childhood, went into renal failure at age 11 and had her first kidney transplant at age 14. Her father was the donor.
"It lasted 12 years and then it rejected. I ended up on renal dialysis again," she said.
Then she underwent a further transplant at Dublin's Beaumont Hospital after moving here. "I'm getting on very well with it but I have to take anti-rejection drugs for life. I take nine tablets a day".
She acknowledges some might say a €180 increase in the threshold for the Drug Payments Scheme is not a lot over a year but she stresses it depends on one's salary.
She works as a temporary clerical officer, taking home less than €300 a week, out of which she also has to pay rent and other expenses. She is not entitled to a medical card.
She points out that because her immune system is suppressed, she often gets infections and has to pay her GP for every visit. She ends up in A&E regularly and the charge here has also increased this month by €10 to €55.
Her letter to Ms Harney referred to the increased drugs charge as "particularly galling given the Government has just announced a surplus in the coffers".
Ms Hyde is also urging other people affected by the change to contact her at traceyhyde@oceanfree.net so she can organise a protest outside the Department of Health.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said last evening that Ms Hyde's correspondence would be examined.