Professor Orla Hardiman:

They are not the same thing. The Deputy is completely right. I totally agree. It is one thing identifying the problems, however, and quite another thing fixing them. That requires investment, particularly at regional level, such as in the west, the north west, the south east and, actually, the south west as well. This model we are developing - the hub-and-spoke model - will attempt to address that geographic inequity. It will come with a price tag. It will require us to have an adequate number of neurologists serving a notional population of about 500,000, with a full multidisciplinary neuro-rehabilitation team within the hospital reaching out reaching out to the community neuro-rehabilitation services and supported by appropriately trained specialist nurses. There will need to be an obvious well-developed pathway where the money follows the patient to secondary, tertiary, and quaternary engagement with expertise if needs be for rare or complex conditions. That is the aspiration model. There are many road blocks and bumps on the road to that but it is what our intention is, and it is in the best interests of the people we serve.