Your entitlement to free or partially free services depends on your category of eligibility:

This entitles you to free GP services

In-patient services in public hospitals

Specialist services in outpatients’ clinics

Dental, ophthalmic and aural services and appliances

Prescribed drugs, medicines and surgical appliances

Maternity care and infant welfare services (including a maternity

Grant of €10.16 per child)

To prove your entitlement, you will be issued with a medical card, which should be presented when availing of these services.

To apply for a medical card, you get a form from the Southern Health Board at Abbeycourt House, George’s Quay, Cork (telephone 021-4965511). After completing this form, you take it to your local community welfare officer who will then approve or reject your application.

If approved, your medical card will be posted to you and you then register with a local GP who then becomes your regular doctor.

Each application is assessed individually, but the following guidelines are available at www.oasis.gov.ie/health/health_services_in_ireland/medical_card.html

Husbands and wives are assessed jointly when applying for a medical card. Dependants (a husband or wife having no separate income or children under 16) are in the same eligibility category as the person being assessed.

Students are entitled to a medical card if:

• they are dependants of people of medical cards
• they are entitled under EU regulations
• they are receiving a disabled persons allowance

A medical cardholder who goes privately to a consultant or uses private or semi- private accommodation in a public hospital is liable for charges.

If you are not entitled to a medical card, you can avail of the following services:

• All in-patient services in public wards (subject to a daily charge of €45 a day up to maximum of €450 a year)
• Specialist services in outpatient clinics, excluding dental, aural and ophthalmic services
• A maternity care and infant welfare service, including the use of a family doctor during pregnancy and for six weeks after the birth
• The Drugs Payment Scheme
• The Long Term Illness Scheme

Under the DPS, no individual or family (householder and dependants) has to pay over €78 per calendar month for certain prescription medicines and appliances.

All persons not having a medical card are eligible for this scheme and each family member receives an individual DPS card, which should be presented along with prescriptions in the pharmacy.

If an individual or family member uses more than one pharmacy in any calendar month, they have to pay up to €78 in the other pharmacy. This can be reclaimed from the Southern Health Board, using the form available in the pharmacy.

You can register for the scheme by getting a form from the pharmacy and returning it to the Southern Health Board.

This scheme covers the supply of medicines and appliances free of charge to people suffering from certain chronic illnesses. Only treatment of this condition and others arising from it are covered.

These are diabetes insipidus, diabetes mellitus, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, haemophilia, hydrocephalus, spina bifida, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, parkinsonism, phenylketonuria, epilepsy, mental handicap, mental illness (in children under 16) and acute leukaemia in children.

If you wish to apply for registration on this scheme, you submit an application form, part of which has been completed by your doctor, to the Southern Health Board. The form is available from the Health Board at Abbeycourt House, George’s Quay, Cork (telephone 021-4965511) or from your doctor or pharmacy.

Once registered on the scheme, you receive an LTI book showing your registration number. Your doctor will write your requirements into the book, which you then bring to your pharmacy. The pharmacy will then dispense your prescription free of charge.

Further information on benefits is available from your local community welfare officer or the Southern Health Board, Abbeycourt House, Abbeycourt House, George’s Quay, Cork (telephone 021-4965511).