Senior neurosurgeon claims Irish services are inadequate

A senior neurosurgeon in Beaumont Hospital in Dublin has claimed that people are dying unnecessarily because of inadequate services in this country.

The head of clinical neurosurgery at the Royal College of Surgeons, Professor Ciaran Bolger, said that there are now more than 600 patients are on urgent waiting lists for a bed at the national neurosurgery centre in Dublin.

All of these people are suffering from a life-threatening condition or require life-changing operations to save them from paralysis.

Ireland has eight neurosurgeons, five in Beaumont, and three at Cork University Hospital but Professor Bolger claims that we should have at least 16 to adequately cater for the population.

He pointed out that the service was better 25 years ago, with more facilities to treat fewer patients.

At the moment, the waiting list is so long, he said, that if a patient got a referral from a GP today, they would not be seen by a specialist until 2008.