Madam, - Nearly 200,000 fewer Irish citizens qualify for a medical card on the basis of income than in 1997, once the 90,000-plus medical cards given to over-70s irrespective of income (many of whom did not need them) are discounted.
Our Government informs its citizens that this fall in medical card numbers reflects the growing prosperity of the nation. The evidence of my own eyes and ears daily contradicts this blithe dismissal of reality.
Yesterday (and not unusually), I saw the reality. A single mother, a patient of mine, has recently returned to the workplace full time. She has had a medical card with me since I started practice in 1995. She is obliged to work shifts and, as a result, pays for childcare for her son. The boy has a serious neurological condition and has required many surgical procedures. In addition, his hearing is impaired.
For her labours she earns the princely sum of €340 a week, before deductions and before childcare. She sought my help, being €70 a week over the income limit for a medical card.
My powerlessness to help her casts shame on us all as a civilised society and a wealthy nation. - Yours, etc.,
Dr RONAN BOLAND,
Blackpool,
Cork.