Professor Orla Hardiman:

The number is still much lower than that in mainland Europe and even lower than that in the UK, which is also much lower than that in mainland Europe. We often compare ourselves to the UK but, in fact, the UK does not do very well in the delivery of neurological services or in respect of the ratio between consultants and patients. Our number is much lower than it should be. Again, there is inequity in that regard given parts of the country are really poorly served with respect to neurology, as I elucidated earlier. We really need to build the regional support services.

There are good stories here as well. In Limerick, for example, which is a hub in development, there are now four neurologists, whereas last year there were only two. Limerick as a region is a case in point of a really good development of a hub for neurological care, but other parts of the country remain very poorly served. We have to think not only about the ratio but also about the geographic terrain. The north-west is an example of that, whereby Donegal in its entirety is managed by my colleagues in Sligo, where there are two neurologists, although a third has been advertised and interviews for that have begun. The need in that part of the country and the waiting lists north of Letterkenny suggest that region is much more poorly served than anywhere else in western Europe, with very significant waiting lists.