Dr. Killian Hurley:

I reinforce the point about the importance of rehab. I have had concerning communications with the transplant team about patients who have been referred for transplant but who could not even start the assessment because they were in such poor condition through being deconditioned without pulmonary rehab. It is even denying patients access to the basic assessment for a transplant, which is a very important aspect of it. Between ILFA and the Irish Thoracic Society, where I chair a committee, we have tried very hard to get a registry set up. We spoke to several people in the HSE to try to get funding for that registry. We had a registry but that was also funded through a charity. At this time, to have a registry you need to have adequate funding for the resources needed. I also spoke to the National Office of Clinical Audit, which was interested in doing that, but again it is about a lack of funding for a registry, which is a basic thing for us to understand the problem, understand where patients are and to understand what kind of treatment they are and are not getting.