Neurological patients in the south of the country getting limited access to care

Advanced nurse practitioner in epilepsy Cara Synnott said in some counties patients wait months for treatment which can be accessed within weeks in Dublin.

Neurological patients in the South-East and South-West have far more limited access to care compared to other areas, the Oireachtas health committee has been told.

“The regional inequities are very significant, and that has very much impacted the waiting lists for people with neurological disabilities,” Professor Orla Hardiman, national clinical lead for neurology told the committee.

She said University Hospital Limerick offers a good service, but this is not replicated across all Munster counties.

Neurological Alliance of Ireland (NAI) executive director Magdalen Rogers said an audit found a shortfall of 100 specialist nurses, which it would like to see filled over five years. She described staffing as static or decreasing, especially outside of Dublin and Cork.

“It means that four-fifths of Irish people living with Parkinson's disease, for example, do not have access to a nurse specialist while there is an absence of nurse specialists in adult neurology services for complex neurological conditions such as muscular dystrophy and Huntington's disease,” she said.

She said the Neurorehabilitation Implementation Group did not meet last year, so no progress on staffing for rehabilitation was made.

Prof Hardiman also said outside of Cork or Dublin, it was difficult to recruit consultant neurologists. 

“It is one thing identifying the problems, it is another fixing them. That does require investment and particularly at a regional level, and particularly in the West, the North-West and the South-East and actually the South-West as well,” she said.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, advanced nurse practitioner in epilepsy Cara Synnott said in some counties patients wait months for treatment which can be accessed within weeks in Dublin.

“It would make an instant difference, it’s hard enough living with a neurological condition without not having access to information when you need it,” the St James Hospital nurse said.

This epilepsy service has four specialist nurses for about 4,500 patients, including 500 homeless people through an outreach clinic. But she is aware of colleagues in other areas who are too short-staffed to offer extended work.

“You may have one nurse covering three different specialties, I think in Kilkenny-Waterford, there is a nurse looking after epilepsy, MS and migraine,” she said.

“There are so many patients that need that level of access, and not a nurse looking after three specialties.”