Neurology services - Pathetic resources for patients

Today is the start of brain awareness week.

People who suffer brain injuries as a result of a car crash, other accidents, or from the likes of a stroke, have to wait up to two years for rehabilitation services. There is only one rehabilitation hospital in the country for brain damage and that has only 110 beds.

Experts recommend early treatment is critical for rehabilitation in terms of helping people to talk or walk again. The health budget was never larger, but some of the results in terms of medical care have been pathetic.

Anything beyond a two-week delay in treating brain injuries is considered completely unacceptable, but they have to wait up to two years here for an initial assessment, because we only have the hospital capacity to treat about a quarter of the 10,000 people who suffer a brain injury each year.

Some doctors have stopped referring people for rehabilitation care, because they believe the patients will never get it. Many people with brain injuries end up dependent on others at home, in nursing homes, or on the streets with deep psychological problems. We have only six rehabilitation doctors for the country, while the European average for our population is 75.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has commissioned three reports on neurology services. The last one was given to the HSE in December, but it has not yet been released.

Three reports have indicated that we have less than half the consultant neurologists required.

With only 20 consultant neurologists for the country, Ireland has proportionately the lowest number in Europe.

A 2003 report, commissioned by the HSE, concluded we needed 42 consultant neurologists, but there were only 16 in the country at that time. In 2005 the HSE commissioned another report, which again found we needed 42 neurologists but only had 20, and it is believed the latest report recommends — surprise, surprise — we need 42 neurologists but we still only have 20.

What is the point in commissioning reports when they are essentially being ignored? The health service should be about providing medical care, not about drawing up reports to be ignored, or paying massive bonuses to executives. What we have been witnessing in recent months has been a vile catalogue of bungling administrative incompetence. Healthcare? It’s enough to make one sick.