€30k medical machine idle over staff shortage

A €30k phototherapy machine, paid for by voluntary fundraising efforts, was installed in 2010 in Bantry hospital, but has not been used to treat psoriasis since last August.

Medical equipment costing €30,000 that is used to deliver light therapy for the treatment of a chronic inflammatory skin condition has lain idle in Bantry General Hospital for almost nine months because there are no staff to operate it.

Now people in West Cork, for whom photo-therapy is recommended to treat psoriasis, must travel over 160km a couple of times a week to avail of a few minutes of therapy at Cork University Hospital.