caring Communication

You
Section
National Medical Card Unit
PLAYING YOUR
CARDS RIGHT
andling almost 20,000
pieces of mail and thousands
of telephone and email
H
queries each week, you could
say the National Medical Card
Unit (NMCU) is used to being busy.
The unit is on the frontline of the health
service and, despite the service often being
a political football, its large team at the
base in Finglas, just off the M50, is more
used to kind words of thanks from grateful
clients.
“We treat each application with empathy
and compassion. We are not here to stop
applications, we want to help people and get
them over the line. We see all the problems
that people are faced with – marriage breakups,
vulnerable children, homelessness, and
do our very best every day to help them,”
said Hugh Glynn, a member of the new applications
team.
“It is particularly heartbreaking to see the
current homeless problem. Obviously it is
more difficult logistically when somebody
doesn’t have an address but we work with
Focus Ireland to make sure that the homeless
person has access to their medical card
and would prioritise these cases.”
He explained that there was a wide age
range of the homeless people they help,
with a lot of older people nearing retirement
age being forced out of their homes at
present.
“We are on the frontline here and see it
all. The rent increases have seen so many
without a roof over their head. But we take
rent increases as part of your outgoings
when assessing people and take it all into
account. We really take the client’s needs
seriously, treat them with empathy and that
comes from the bottom up. It really makes
you proud to work here,” said Hugh.
Increase
THE Primary Care Reimbursement Service
and National Medical Card Unit manages a
wide range of primary care services across
12 community health schemes, including
the Medical Card Scheme, to a population of
over 3.66 million people. These services are
provided by more than 7,000 primary care
contractors and involve 77 million transactions
annually, with an associated expenditure
of €2.397bn.
As of December 1st 2015, there were
1.729 million Medical Cards and 409,000 GP
Visit Cards in circulation. When compared
to December 1st 2005, there has been an
increase of 573,273 people with eligibility
under the GMS Scheme, which is 33.2pc
more than the 2005 level.
The unit is headed by Siobhan McArdle,
Head of Operations.
The first floor of the building is the first
point of entry for the thousands of letters
that are delivered daily. Each envelope is
We look to find the
balance of needing
to do everything in a timely
fashion and meeting our
targets while not affecting
quality or customer service.
We work to ensure that
applications, when complete
are processed within 15
working days. Over 95pc of
applications are processed in
10 to 15 working days
MAIN: Thousands of applications arrive every week.
OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP LEFT: The IT team at work;
TOP RIGHT: Files are sorted in the store room.
ABOVE LEFT: Kate Halliwell ABOVE RIGHT: Catherine
Kane, Christine Smyth, Kate Halliwell, Ann Smyth
and Siobhán Kelly. PAUL CONNOR PHOTOGRAPHY
14 | health matters | spring 2016