A NEW Ross woman who is attending St. Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin has expressed anger at over what she says is lack of support from the Community Welfare service.
Eleanor Sabry Tabrizy, from 17 Woodbine Terrace, New Ross, spoke exclusively to The Echo about her concerns this week.
For the last couple of months she has been attending St. Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin and the cost of going up to meet her appointments is around €150.
There is a transport service from Wexford General Hospital to St. Vincent’s, however, Ms. Sabry Tabrizy would still have to get transport to Wexford from New Ross in time for the early morning bus.
She is separated, in receipt of social welfare, and doesn’t drive so her options are limited.
To date she has received €20 from the Community Welfare Office in New Ross and says she has received no other source of funding to help cover the costs of her appointments.
She also claimed the CWO provided funding for “at least two other people” she knows of to meet medical appointments and for a visit to Mountjoy Prison.
“All I want is what other people get and what the Department’s own website says it provides; and that’s financial assistance to meet my appointments,” she told this newspaper.
However, she also expressed anger at what she claims is the invasive questioning of one letter she received from the office in New Ross which asked her to provide a hospital letter clarifying her appointment but also looking for clarity on who she is attending, when the appointment is for, where it’s for and, most significantly, why she is attending hospital.
“That is my personal business and certainly don’t think it’s any business of any Community Welfare Officer to ask me why I’m attending hospital,” she said.
“I can understand them wanting proof of the appointment but it’s none of their business as to why I have to go to St. Vincent’s,” she added.
Ms. Sabry Tabrizy also expressed dismay at being repeatedly asked to provide information which she says she has already supplied.
“I have copies of letters regarding appointments,” she said.
“I have sent them in and yet I keep getting asked to provide them,” she added.
“I just want to get what other people seem to get and at this stage it feels like it’s personal against me.”
When asked why the cost of attending Dublin amounted to €150 she said it was because her appointment times were such that it involves staying overnight which is not something she likes having to do.
“The last time I was up there I ended up sleeping in a bus shelter because I just don’t have the money for accommodation,” she said.
“All I’m asking for is help and support and when you see other people getting it that can get very annoying,” she added.
While the medical condition for which she is attending St. Vincent’s is not serious it is debilitating.
“I’m hoping it’s not serious but it might involve an operation on my arm but I just don’t know how I will be able to keep meeting my appointments and the problem is if I miss one it could be a year or two before I’d get seen again,” she said.
“The last time it was a bus shelter and it will probably be the same next time around but there is not a lot I can do,” she added.
The Echo contacted the Community Welfare Office in New Ross and later received an emailed response from the Department of Social Protection’s Press Office in which it said that it could not comment on individual cases.
However, in a statement a Department spokesperson did say that under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) scheme, the Department ‘may make a single Exceptional Needs Payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off and unforeseen expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income.’ [The Government has provided €31.3 million for ENPs in 2014].
The statement went on to say: “There is no automatic entitlement to a payment. ENP’s are payable at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme taking into account the requirements of the legislation and all the relevant circumstances of the case in order to ensure that the payments target those most in need of assistance.”
The spokesperson then said that ENPS are not intended to cover ‘circumstances where responsibility for the expenditure or payment rests with another Government Department or Agency such as patient transport.’
“Responsibility for patient transport is generally a matter for the Health Service Executive,” said the spokesperson in the statement
