Recommendations

Based on the findings set out in the previous chapter, the Ombudsman makes the following recommendations:

• that the HSE refund Ms Kelly the cost of medications for her son in the period from when she first made an application for him under the LTI scheme to the time when her application was granted. (The cost was approximately €3,000)
• that, as the outcome from the Review Group is awaited by the HSE and in the absence of any substantive amendments to the governing legislation, the HSE continues to administer the LTI scheme as it has done for many years in the greater part of the country, thereby including ADHD as constituting a mental illness which, in the case of persons under 16 years, gives entitlement to a LTI card.
• that steps be taken to ensure that the LTI Scheme, as a national scheme, is administered in a uniform fashion throughout the country.
• that all of these recommendations are implemented before the end of October 2013.

Peter Tyndall
Ombudsman

January 2014