John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

As it used to be said in military circles, the HSE is a target-rich environment.

The situation with respect to rehabilitation services, in particular, is appalling. The figures I have indicate that we have approximately 60% of the number of rehabilitation consultants per head of population as the United Kingdom. If it was not for Ireland, the United Kingdom would be at the bottom of every metric for patient access in the world's socialised medical systems. It scores dismally in terms of patient access. The United Kingdom has 10% of the number of rehabilitation consultants of a country like France, which would be at the upper end of the scale. We have 60% of what the British have and the British have 10% of what the French have. As a result, we can have up to six months of a wait for access to neurological rehabilitation, which means that somebody who has had some devastating, life-altering injury can be lying in a hospital bed for five or six months before being transferred to rehabilitation services for their specialist rehabilitation to begin. That has all manner of downstream consequences and our health service tends to specialise in the law of unintended consequences. It is harder to rehabilitate someone who has been waiting six months for treatment to begin. As well as that, someone who is lying in a hospital bed for six months is, effectively, bed-blocking, but I do not use that phrase in a pejorative sense. That person is inappropriately using a bed that should be used for other services. We have, according to local representative group estimates, one fifth of the number of consultants that we should have in this area. If the HSE appointed a new clinical director every month from a different specialty we would still be having the same conversation because that is the kind of health service we have. It is the kind of health service we have been given because of years of maladministration and one that we need to fix. While I have the witnesses captive here, I am taking the opportunity to bring this to their attention. I brought it to the attention of the Oireachtas through the Seanad debate system some time ago and I am sure it has been ignored. Now that representatives of the HSE are actually here, I am bringing it to their attention, as well as to the attention of my colleagues on this committee. The issue of rehabilitation is something we should discuss in more detail in this forum.