Ban leaves epilepsy units closed as 200 wait on list

Two specialised units crucial to assessing the suitability of epilepsy patients for surgery remain closed due to the ban on staff recruitment, leaving more than 200 people on a waiting list.

This is despite the fact that the units are a central part of the HSE’s draft National Epilepsy Care Programme, published last March.

The two epilepsy monitoring units (EMUs) at Cork University Hospital and Beaumont Hospital in Dublin are supposed to provide an environment to record and study epileptic seizures with a view to: