Why the Irish Health Service is in such a mess

Okay so I hope you're not going to be disappointed now.  I think there are a million reasons why the Irish Health Service is in such a mess.  This is just one example, but if every little bureaucratic muddle like this one was reorganised and handled efficiently, a lot of money would be saved, and the time of well-paid, highly qualified healthcare professionals would be better spent...

This is my (latest) story

My son has not been sleeping well.  Not an unusual problem for children with Asperger's or Autism.  So one of his therapists prescribed melatonin.  No problems so far.  It was after 6 pm and I did the rounds of the late night chemists to find one that stocked it.  I succeeded.  The first shock was the price, but the pharmacist was lovely.  She must have noticed me blanching and suggested I apply for a long term illness card for my son - one of the schemes in Ireland that provides approved medicine and equipment for free for children and adults with long term medical needs.

She gave me the application form.  So the first challenge was to get it filled in and signed by the therapist who had written out the original presciption.  You can't just send the prescription in with the form.  That would be too easy.  It all has to written out again.   Luckily a follow-up appointment had already been organised.

So that was done and posted.  The next stage was really efficient...I received the long term illness book the following week.  I did a little happy dance :)

But then I discovered that even though I had the prescription and the book, I now had to go to my GP to get him to write the prescription INTO the book.

Next stop - the pharmacy.  There was a different lovely pharmacist on duty.  She looked at the book and told me that unfortunately she needed to confirm that the medications written into the book were allowed by the HSE.  These are the medications that were put on the application form.  Are you following me?  Two different departments perhaps?  One approves the card based on an identified illness and another approves the medications after you've got the card if they're on THE LIST.  At least this is what I suspect.

As it was a Saturday she couldn't ring the HSE, but gave me a small bottle of medication to tide us over the weekend and promised to make the phone call on Monday.  She did.  And just as I was groggily leaving another dental appointment I heard the good news that all was finally approved.  So now I'm heading out into the Dublin floods to collect....

Finally if you want to read something funny instead, head over to Northern Mum.  Just put the coffee down first...