Sir, – I am one of thousands of Irish people who must deal with the public health service on a regular basis, trying to get scarce services for an elderly or disabled family member.
Last year it took me four months to get my 90-year-old mother’s medical card issued, and last November I asked the public health nurse to try to get a chiropody appointment for my mother.
Last week I enquired as to how that was going, as no word had been received. My mother then received a photocopy of the fax the nurse had sent to the HSE on November 11th last year, with a sticker on it saying that it could not be processed without the expiry date of the medical card.
I rang yesterday to give them the expiry date over the phone, only to be told that it would have to be posted to them instead. I asked, “That’s in spite of the fact that you are sitting in front of the computer and it is only four digits, and it’s for a 90-year-old woman who has been waiting since November even though you had my mobile phone number and could have got it from me three months ago?” The answer was, “Yes.”
So this is now my wish – I hope that all HSE personnel who think that how they do their job does not matter will realise that, actually, it does matter. That they are dealing with real people who are physically tired and emotionally drained. That for such people, having to go to the post office to buy a stamp because they have none is simply the last straw in dealing with an exhausting system. That they will realise that the application of uncommon common sense over stupid bureaucratic rules would be a great step forward in compassion and kindness to carers who are at the end of their tether. Hope springs eternal. – Yours, etc,
MARESE HICKEY,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.