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TWO PEOPLE HAVE been injured in an early morning collision involving a garda car in Donegal.
The drivers of two cars were brought to Donegal University Hospital with injuries that are not thought to be life-threatening.
The second car involved in the 3.45am crash has been described as a black Fiat Punto.
Officers from the Garda Síochana Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc) attended the scene at McGrory’s Brae in Meencargagh, around a mile outside the town of Ballybofey.
Gsoc said it was “examining the matter” along with a garda investigation into the collision.
The road is currently closed to facilitate a forensic examination and local diversions are in place. The route is expected to reopen around lunchtime.
Any witnesses have been asked to contact Letterkenny garda station on 074 916 7100, the garda confidential line on 1800 666 111 or any garda station.
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A medical card is a reasonable measure of a decent society trying to help those most in need.
However the fact that almost half the population of Ireland have one is a national fcuking disgrace.
When a society giVes away stuff for free, people are bound to take advantage
The sooner the election rolls in the better
2 million people in Ireland have a medical card or GP card.
Half the population may need a medical card. Private medical health insurance is increasingly unaffordable.
USC, Water Charges, LPT and increased energy costs mean that the discretionary incomes of at least half of the population have been severely eroded. The policies of austerity following a recession have had huge adverse impact.
It is the bank bail out and other such measure are bleeding the Irish economy. Don’t further victimise low income groups.
Access to medical, health and hospital services should not be based on financial capacity.
It’s a disgrace that 40% of the population are living on an income that means they need a medical card to afford to take themselves are their children to a doctor. Is this because the so called recovery and increase in employment is down to scambridge, minimum wage part time jobs.
If you are struggling you should attend your local f.g/lab or f.f t.ds clinic, they may not be able to help with your health, but they may be able to corrupt the system so that you get a card you are not entitled to.
Ireland is about as close as you can get to a North Atlantic socialist state. 50% of the population have a medical card, 28% of the population are in receipt of state social welfare which accounts for 40% of all government expenditure. Why would anyone be bothered trying to better themselves in a socialist country like this – work and pay tax to maintain others in the poverty trap.
If you have any of the following, you qualify for a medical card, no matter what your income is:
The medical conditions that qualify under the Long Term Illness Scheme are:
•Intellectual disability
•Mental illness (for people under 16 only)
•Diabetes insipidus
•Diabetes mellitus
•Haemophilia
•Cerebral palsy
•Phenylketonuria
•Epilepsy
•Cystic fibrosis
•Multiple sclerosis
•Spina bifida
•Muscular dystrophies
•Hydrocephalus
•Parkinsonism
•Acute leukaemia
•Conditions arising from use of Thalidomide
My wife has a life threatening cancer of a type that isn’t on the list, so she doesn’t qualify for a medical card. She pays the maximum for chemo medication every month, and has to visit Cork University Hospital every 5 or 6 weeks for an examination.
If we were living in the UK, where her cancer is recognised for what it is, she wouldn’t have to pay for anything, and would even qualify for a disabled badge for her car.
The HSE could have put her illness on the list, but they didn’t, and probably never will. Whoever decides what should or shouldn’t be on the list is a feckin knob.
Fiona how about people who are working flat out to try and keep their heads above water and can’t get access to doctors because of a €55 charge being too much for them yet someone who may not have worked for their entire lives gets unlimited trips for free and still finds time to moan about a measly prescription charge. The entire system is a scam.
Hey Ted I hope your wife gets back to full health soon. I’m sorry you have all this added worry at a time when you both clearly have enough to be dealing with.
Thanks for that catkins, but what she’s got is incurable. All they can do is pump her full of toxic substances to try and control the symptoms. Eventually, the poisonous treatment will have done more harm than good, and that will be the end of it.
Maybe health insurance is priced so high because half the population has a medical card.
Of those half there are many who simply don’t deserve it.
There are obviously some mentally unstable anonymous bell-ends on here, given the four (so far) thumbs down on my previous comment. They should realise that not taking the prescribed psychotropic drugs is bad for them.
Yes it’s a disgrace! Chronic leukemia isn’t on the list either.
Sorry about that Ted, but you are wrongly informed. The Long term Illness scheme does not give you the same cover as a medical card, it only covers you for medicine cost. Not for hospital stay, a&e or GP visit. We have a long term illness book for our daughter.
I would still apply for the medical card in your situation and explain the hardship conditions. Hope you will be successful.
We were informed that those illnesses were used as the criteria for getting a medical card without means testing. It seems that government departments like keeping people in the dark, or would rather give vague information as to what people are entitled to.
Vote for me and il get you a card…….
They didn’t want to extend that list of illnesses as it would open a can of worms. Anyway they are not criteria for a medical card at all. You can apply for the card online http://www.medicalcard.ie. Don’t get distracted with income rules or other confusing information. Make sure you explain your circumstances well enough. A letter from the GP and/or consultant might help as well. You can still get a no but at least you tried..
Fiona you’ve seen nothing yet in five years time the water charge will amount to€1000 per household
Jeroen – Applied, didn’t get one. Before they centralised the application process, it was a lot easier for local doctors to intervene with a telephone call to the local office, but since centralisation, that doesn’t seem to happen any more, or isn’t allowed.
Despite all of the medical documentation supplied, the application wasn’t successful, with their telling us that the disease wasn’t on the list. They are either using the same list above, or are referring to a similar list for their own purposes.
socialist to a degree.. not as socialist as we should be where health is involved. the direction we need to be moving is making health care free for all. if a private company can charge you, provide health care AND MAKE A PROFIT so can a public run company.
These are the illnesses which qualify you for free medications for those conditions. They don’t entitle you to a medical card
Should probably cut some of the bloated HSE admin staff first no!?!?!?!?
No point even speculating on that as it would be political suicide. The unions would dress it up as an attack on front lines and the public would get behind them like they did the nurses strike which was conveniently called off when a few quid and a couple of extra days were offered.
Amount of people on disability is also disturbing , the majority are well able to walk around town shopping all day. My mother is blind and she was refused for years got told her husband can look after her .
That’s a disgrace
When people go back to work they get to keep their medical card for two years. That needs to be scrapped immediately.
Your finances don’t suddenly recover if or when you get a job, usually at a much lower income than your previous job prior to a period of unemployment. There needs to be a transition period. Otherwise peolle will be deterred from taking up employment due to losing a medical card.
Incentivise return to work and don’t disincentivise return to work.
What about workers who can’t afford health insurance. The well off can afford it, the poor get a medical card and the middle get shafted.
That is why we need Universal Health Care. We are in the same boat, no medical card but too much for private health insurance for 2 adults and kids. We would not mind paying a bit more tax if it went towards u.h.c. instead of going into the likes of Irish Water. Sinn Fein have proposed to bring this in over 5 years. It makes a lot of sense and has been costed by the dept. of finance.
Healthcare is so important to us all, no matter what your income level is, we deserve to be all treated equally.
These are worrying comments because regardless of what he says about no plans there will be. If there are targets like this issued by the Hse then there will be pressure exerted to meet them. This pressure will be put on those staff issuing and renewing cards. While it’s true many people did have cards whilst unemployed the majority never even used them. Yeah I knew there someone who knows a family running to the doctor for every little thing. I wonder at how true those claims are. The reality is you can wait days or even up to a week to get an appointment with a gp when you have a medical card. Last time out sick kids were targetted and this put untold pressures on families. Others like my son who is in remission from cancer lost cards and did not have them returned. This is a worrying time now again for vulnerable people who need theirs cards.
plus one. if this goes ahead watch the horror stories here on the journal about vulnerable people having medical cards removed. its not the people with medical cards that are the problem its the system. how is it there are people with medical cards that dont need them. how can that be. the answer to that question lies with civil servants & government not the people with medical cards.
It doesn’t say target, it says projection…
What’s worrying is that EU rules don’t allow for supplementary estimates in health from 2016 onwards.
Good. In a country of a little over four million people there are far too many of them.
Over 550,000 pensioners and hundreds of thousands of kids that are entitled to a medical or GP card. It’s not 2 million full medical cards in circulation. 4.7 million in the country. Many of these people work and are on a low income and have a GP card.
Alan O’Connor is a political hack and hatchet man for the Labour Party.
The Labour Party is now more FG than FG itself, which is saying something.
Cutting 50,000 Medical Cards will do nothing to address the health service crisis.
I don’t have a Medical Card but I don’t begrudge other people having a Medical Card.
People need access to health services. Money should not be a barrier to accessing medical services.
Timely access to medical services saves more money and more costly treatment in the longer term. Prevention and early intervention are essential in the area of health.
@Alan O’ Connor. Part of this government’s plan was to introduce free gp care for all. In most European societies that is precisely the case. Medical care is provided based on need and is not a luxury.
In the late 1940s, my mother’s 3 year old sister died on Christmas eve. The reason for her death is, very simply, that the family could not afford to bring to a doctor earlier. You seem to want to go back to those days when only the wealthy had access to health care. I have the opposite view, i.e. the view that it is a national disgrace that only 2m people in this country have access to medical care without worrying about the cost.
Many people without medical cards today put off going to see the GP until the last minute as the €50/60 required is often beyond reach. A study carried out by UCC a few years ago investigated this and found that those without medical cards see the GP much later and require more antibiotics which indicates that having to pay is detrimental to a person’s health.
F.G are just pandering to their core voters. The people who believe that those on the bottom should be desperate and grateful for the scraps. Those who believe that people who are unemployed should either be left starve to death are die due to not being able to afford medical care.
They wont touch pensioners medical cards because they depend on these oul codgers for votes. they will sacrifice the poor because they know they either don’t vote or don’t vote F.G.
I have both a medial card and VHI cover. I got a medical card in the post a year or two back and I have no idea why. Never had cause to use it, and I don’t know if it’s still in date or not. Nor do I receive any social welfare payments apart from child benefit.
Find that hard to believe Pepper.
We had a medical card a few years back when I was out of work and my husband was still working. You have to prove you are eligible and bringing in below a certain income cut off point by filling in forms, sending in P60′s, wages slips, mortgage statements, the works. It is not that easy to bluff your way into getting one, it goes on family size and a lot of other things.
We barely ever used the medical card as luckily none of us were sick and I would not bring the kids down for a common cold or minor things. The notion that people with medical cards are running down to the doctor every second day of the week is a myth, I think it is put out there to give the “privileged” something to give out about saying there taxes are going to carry the freebies in society.
For those that have a serious condition / disability, well it goes without saying, it is only right that they are looked after.
Well my own GP has had to take on a second GP in his practice since the under 6′s has come in as he can’t handle the demand on his own anymore.
As for the medical card, it arrived in the post with my name on it. I filled out no forms that I can remember and the only other possible explanation I can think of is that one of my children was born in that timeframe and they sent a card with my name on it in error or through some kind of oversight.
The only time I ever appeared on the social welfare system was 15 years ago when I was in my early 20′s and between jobs. I signed on for 6 months and ended up going back to college. I have no idea why or how a card came out with my name on it, unless perhaps my GP applied for it on my behalf or something similar.
And the circle continues again of our health system trying to find money for the sick and needy FROM the sick and needy instead of other areas of the economy. Irish water got off the ground nice and quick without needing a kicksarter campaign.
Was listening to our Health Minster this morning and all I was sure of was that more will loose Medical Cards and pay rises will be given, no assurances given that the overall service will improve for definite.
Such a toxic subject coming up to the election Are the HSE trying to undermine the minister
Nothing they can do about the annual pay rises, they are written in stone in the public sector pay and no political party will ever be able to tackle it as there are too many voters in this group.
@ Conriel
People will not lose medical cards. The qualifying criteria remain exactly the same.
50,000 will now be earning enough that they are no longer entitled to them.
Would you prefer that those 50,000 earned less? That they were mired in poverty for eternity and had to depend on the state for handouts?
Or would you prefer that these 50,000 people are earning more?
Dave Meagher those are just general nonsense claims with nothing to back them up. When my son had cancer he looked like a typical teenager and even had one guy shouting at him for using a disabled space quite properly with a badge. Please don’t just spread nonsense claims like that. I don’t know why your mother was refused but surely it goes to show how difficult it can be to get disability allowance. My son was glad of it for a few years. He’s much happier being back and work and not needing it at all. I don’t think you would do much shopping ” all day” on 188 per week. This is a means tested payment. So there’s medical and financial criteria to getting accepted for it.
And how do you explain the new jeeps caravans and bling lifestyle if it’s means tested?
Mary Murphy that’s utter nonsense again. You know what I’m lying . It’s not means tested at all it’s given to everyone. You don’t even have to have a serious medical condition either. They give it out for fun. Also it’s not 188 per week it’s 7 million euro per week so people can head to the Riveria twice a week to top up their tan.
The overspend would have been worthwhile if it had been noticeable
Fine Gael is doing its utmost to destroy what is left of our health care system so they can hand it over to private companies. There is no effort being made to correct the situation,our hospitals,patients and front line staff are suffering. Why is it Customers and Clients not patients anymore?………silly question really;-)
Good one
Tony O Brien Director General of the HSE is in the pocket of the Government, and is playing down the crisis the HSE is in, and the first thing the NEW Government needs to do drop kick this a,,e wipe before they start to reform the health service.
If people need a medical for genuine reasons let them have it. But we are a country built on people getting by ,by getting state hands although they don’t need these,this has to stop. People won’t better themselves if constantly getting hand outs.
People, especially low paid parents, will be reluctant to resume work after a period of unemployment if it carries the penalty of loss of medical card, especially so when private medical health insurance is increasingly unaffordable.
How about aiming for everyone having free access to a GP rather than finding fault with those that have a medical card. This division of options is exactly what the government wants to justify cuts rather than improve the service for all ie free GP visits for everyone.
Considering the majority of that 50% of people who qualify (pensioners, children, people in hardship) are those who would use a GP and get prescriptions, should they not go the whole hog and issue medical cards for all. The people who do not have medical cards are the ones who are generally healthy, are used to being frugal with GP visits. This would also bring down the overall cost of GP care, as practice’s who overcharge an agreed national rate would lose their potential patients?
The overspend would have been better if it had been noticeable
The growing and aging are the very ones who have contributed to our health system
Give whoever works more than 20 a week a GP card and whoever works more than 35 hours a medical card. They’re the ones paying for it and they’re the ones I’d want to live longer and be healthier so that the workforce is strong. It just might be the incentive for some to get off their arses and find work…
The fool-proof plan to get rid of 50,000 medical card holders would be to leave them on trollies in the hospital car-park, and when they’ve all died off, their nearest and dearest will be billed for the use of the car-park.
Those extra funds should go a long way towards helping shortages of clinical staff and A&E over crowding…
Services for ordinary working people have been neglected by this government. It’s government priorities, not lack of money that is wrong.
€13B of exchequer money works out at just shy of €3k for every adult and child in the country to run this system. Couple this with the 2 or 3 billion contribution from health insurance. It just baffles how it costs so much, particularly when the service is often quite poor in terms of waiting times etc..
Brian Deane, Majority of the welfare bill goes on pensions, are you suggesting we lower the pension rate?
Theres 19 million euros being prudently saved by the oireachtas as conpensation for when tds loose their seats in the election. They can use that for the hospitals.
These politicians didn’t think twice when they raided other peoples private pension funds when they needed the money, yet they have almost 20 million put aside as compensation for themselves when they lose their jobs in the election, and then they talk about struggling to find 5 million compensation for people whose homes were damaged in the flooding! This is a disgrace.
Colin, you do know that pretty much every pensioner has a medical care, should we take them off those too?
Here is to TTIP and to the TiSA Agreement… “The Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) is a proposed international trade treaty between 23 Parties, including the European Union and the United States. The agreement aims at liberalizing the worldwide trade of services such as banking, health care and transport.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_in_Services_Agreement
TTIP is seen now in over 700 pages to say all of the E.U. countries will have to privatise their health services, water services and their postal services under TTIP, that will mean 1 million jobs loss in the E.U. because of TTIP.
It will also mean all the refugees in Europe will be doing cheap labour for these services then as well…
I bet it’ll work out at 50k more.
Barry Flanagan, I fully understand your point and my apologies, but the Minster did clearly say that medical cards numbers will drop and salary’s will be increased, but what about the STANDARD OF SERVICE which I”am sure you will agree is what all people want, there was no definite on that part! It would be great to see the number of medical card holders dropping because of improved personal standards and the best of luck to those getting a wage increase, but again what about the level of Service, let get a solid answer from the power’s that be on that one!! then we”er all going to a better situation.
What the Professor would like to know is, why should anything be free? Where did this disgraceful sense of entitlement in this country come from? Maybe my first question is a little harsh and we do as humans have an element of social responsibility, but this country is taking the piss. Bunch of whingers!!
Vote for me and il get you a card …and the rest
There seems to be no “equality” in the health service.
Not just the health service
Misleading headline!!!
Why the feck should eu fiscal rules interfere with the health care of any nation?!
have your say