Kelly wants Drumm to donate bonus to home help budget

Roscommon Herald, 20^th October, 2009.

A Ballaghaderreen based councillor has this week urged Health Service Executive CEO, Professor Brendan Drumm to donate the €70,000 bonus payment to a much needed home help budget “where elderly people are struggling big time and striving to stay out of nursing homes”.

“When you think it couldn’t get any worse and that very soon the Government would have all its I’s dotted and t’s crossed we hear of yet another bonus we simply cannot afford or indeed comprehend,” said Cllr John Kelly.  “With the best will in the world I presume that Professor Drumm thought that he could sort out the health service.  What he did was to take away local accountability and replace it with yet another monster that’s out of control.  In this case it’s the HSE.  It now appears to me that every Minister wants to set up a sub organisation within his/her own department and blame them for everything that goes wrong.  I am not even going to give one example because that would lead to two, three, four, etc,” said the Independent councillor.

“It is now so outrageous that the elderly person that wants home help has to be almost on his/her death bed to get help, but yet there is no problem finding €70,000 as a bonus for Professor Drumm for the fine way that he has rehabilitated the health service.  Why does every hard working person across the public sector not get a bonus for performance? Why in my own day job, since it had been proven that I am doing the work of two people, do I not get a bonus,” asked Cllr Kelly.  “The answer is quite simple, you get your bonus for sticking within budgets and that entails cutbacks and people other than the beneficiary of the bonus, suffer.

“I can speak for almost everyone in County Roscommon when I say that if I was on a salary of €425,000 per annum I wouldn’t really be concerned about a bonus.  “I can sill recall my days going to school in the CBS in Roscommon as my father drove past the courthouse he pointed to a room in it and told me that the administrative side of Roscommon Hospital was run from that room.  Back then we had a hospital to be envied. Now we are giving bonuses to downgrade them or as the HSE spin it ‘he delivered on the HSE service plan’ i.e. bonus for cut back.

“At this stage I would like to think that Professor Drumm took on this job for all the right reasons but pencilling into his agreement that he should get a bonus makes a mockery of that,” concluded Cllr Kelly.

Letter written to Mary Harney

Castlemore

Ballaghaderreen

Co.Roscommon

Medical Cards for Cancer Patients.

Dear Minister,

                     I am again calling on you to allow cancer patients have the benefit of a medical card without the rigours of a means test to go with it.At the moment there is a myth out there that cancer patients are automatically entitled to  medical cards.I know that this is untrue and indeed so do you.However,on a recent national newspaper article someone from your own department fudged the issue without setting the record straight.As a result people who attend their GP and get advised that they are entitled to a medical card by virtue of their illness will not accept their local HSE department telling them otherwise.

I am a Community Welfare Officer and work with this problem.Both myself and my colleagues are unanimous on this issue ,we do not want to put someone who has just been diagnosed with cancer through the  trauma and red tape attached to a means test.We fully acknowledge and accept that these unfortunate people have enough going on in their lives at that point. I lobbied your goodself in the past on the medical card guideline issue and was very pleased when you delivered albeit that the recent social welfare increases have reduced their effectiveness somewhat.

I am calling on you again to look reasonably at this issue and make life easier for our one in four that is contacting this deadly disease.

                             Yours Sincerely

                              Cllr.John Kelly

                             Ballaghaderreen

28^th April, 2009.
Roscommon Herald

Social Welfare recipients to lose medical cards

Thousands of social welfare recipients throughout the country face losing their medical cards following a proposal to means test all card holders as of July. Independent Councillor John Kelly has warned this week. 

Cllr Kelly warned that a new government proposal to means test all medical card holders come July would result in thousands of social welfare recipients losing their entitlement to a medical card.  It is understood that the proposal will review the income and circumstances of all medical card holders, with the exception of those who are entitled to a card due to ill health or a medical condition.  

The move follows a decision by government to means test all medical card applicants over the age of 70, as the government clawed back on an automatic entitlement to a medical card for every citizen over 70.  Now Cllr Kelly warned social welfare recipients would face a similar fate and many would face losing their medical card: “ There is a proposal on the cards that everyone on social welfare will be means tested for a medical card come July.  Around 50% of social welfare recipients currently qualify for a medical card but the majority of them now facing losing their cards because of this means test.”

Cllr Kelly explained that, at present, many social welfare recipients qualified for a medical card despite the fact that their incomes were above the income thresholds specified in the medical card guidelines.  He said, however, that if the medical card guidelines were rigidly applied it would result in thousands of social welfare recipients losing their medical cards.

He also pointed out that the income thresholds specified in the medical card guidelines were out of date and had not been increased in the last four years.  Cllr Kelly placed a joint notice of motion on the matter at this week’s meeting of Roscommon County Council, Independent Councillors john Kelly and Tony Ward called on the county council to request the Minister for Health, Mary Harney to instruct the HSE that there should be no change to the present system of applying for medical cards. 

“Since 2005 there has been no increase in the medical card guidelines but they kept increasing Social Welfare payments to the ridiculous degree that anyone on Social Welfare who is over the guidelines for a medical card now has to be means tested.  They are going to means test people on Social Welfare for the first time ever!

“Take for example a single man on the dole who is getting €204 per week and the medical card guidelines is €184 which means he is €20 over the limit.  The reality is that a lot of people on Social Welfare are in danger of losing their medical cards,” said Cllr Kelly.  The Ballaghaderreen area councillor went on to say that the HSE proposed to save millions of euro by introducing a means test for medical card applications but he noted that it was a “scandal” to “look to the bottom of the ladder to solve the problem.”  “I know one particular lady who was relying on the Social Welfare Christmas bonus to pay for her alarm pendant.  Once again it’s the weak and vulnerable who are being hit and it’s a scandal,” said Cllr Kelly.

22nd April, 2009.
Kelly slams means testing of the medical cards for over 70’s

BY MARESA FAGAN

INDEPENDENT COUNCILLOR John Kelly has this week slammed the government and HSE for placing “untold hardship” on medical card holders over 70, who now face an arduous review and application process to retain their cards. The means test that has been introduced for medical card holders over the age of 70 is causing great distress and anxiety for elderly people, many of whom have contacted Cllr Kelly in recent weeks. 

“Those over 70 now have to go through a hugely complicated application or review process and must provide a copy of their pension book, proof of their income, in addition to completing a six or seven page application form and getting their doctor to sign it, and this is causing untold hardship for many,” Cllr Kelly said.  

Cllr Kelly said that the move to means test applicants also went against the commitment by government last year to leave it at the discretion of card holders, above the income threshold, to declare or hand back their cards. To date more than 10,000 medical cards have been returned and a further 9,000 cards have been cancelled following a review of the Medical Card Register. Cllr Kelly added that the decision by the Department of Health to centralise the processing of medical cards at a new “quango” in Dublin had also created difficulties as well as significant time delays for applicants.

“People are being left in limbo without medical cards especially those whose cards have expired and who are now facing a wait of between eight and ten weeks,” Cllr Kelly said. “This new quango off the M50 in Dublin – the HSE Primary Care Reimbursement Scheme – is going to fail.  We’re told that there are two telephone helplines for people to call but the problem is that people can’t get through, so what does that tell you about this new set up,” he added.  

The independent Councillor, who works as a community welfare officer, called on the government to reverse its decision to means test medical card applicants over the age of 70 and to revert back to how the scheme had operated. “The government should revert back to the way the scheme had operated and should provide the necessary support and assistance to community welfare officers who are best placed to deal with medical card applications,” Cllr Kelly said. 

Mon 14/05/2007

Don’t be fooled

John Kelly called on the Roscommon/ South Leitrim constituents not to be fooled by reassurances about Roscommon Hospital.

"People in Monaghan were given the exact same rhetoric and spin and see what happened there. Roscommon awaits a similar fate unless people power kicks in and constituents go out and vote for their health on Election Day. Remember after election day it may be too late," said Kelly.

Kelly listed the series of events that unfolded in Monaghan Hospital mirroring what will happen in Roscommon.

"In the beginning people were told that the hospital was not going to be downgrade and services would be enhanced; indeed there would be a world class service in the North East.

Now emergency medicine has ceased and the surgical ward closes at five pm. Furthermore there are no doctors in Monaghan Hospital except in working hours. Nothing World class about that," said Kelly

"Similar to the Roscommon experience money, over €4m was sent on refurbishing two wards - these are now used as step down and recuperation units. So the investment just like the investment in the A and E here is a smoke screen. People wonder why the Government would invest money if they have other plans. Well they would and did in Monaghan and unless people stop them they will do it again in Roscommon honouring the Hanley report which is Government Policy," continued Kelly.

"Hanley report is based on the ideas of creating centres of excellence around the country. They are benchmarking off the system in England where each centre would be serving a population of 500,000. However in England this population would live within a ten mile radius approx of the hospital - to reach that type of audience in Ireland outside of Dublin you will be trying to serve a lot of people who live outside the Internationally recognised Golden Hour area - thus endangering the lives of many people. The figures don’t stack up - the strategy is erred - time for the authors to accept responsibility and withdraw the plan, “concluded Kelly.

Fri, 04 May 2007
John Kelly has restated his claim that HSE are becoming cost cutters, not service providers.

On his canvass through Boyle and Strokestown, Kelly pointed out the Roscommon County Hospital as case in point.

 "When you consider that it has been recently been awarded the Best Accident and Emergency in Ireland, in addition to experiencing an 80% increase in useage for the Radiology equipment, successfully cares for the majority of A and E admissions, the rest of which are stabilised and sent to more specialist units, one wonders why there should be such a grey cloud hanging over its future as a result of the Hanley report," he argued.

 "A local hospital is an integral part of the social fabric of any area and saving lifes should not be looked at from a profit and loss perspective, " he  added.

 Commenting on speculation that his campaign is getting stronger and stronger, Kelly enthused that there was a clear message coming from the doorsteps - "it is time for change, time for action, indeed time to leave the era of empty promises behind.Thats the voice of the people - loud and clear - within that voice is a very strong indpendent support who have seen the positive effect of Marian Harkin and the Late Tom Foxe in this constituency."