Dr. Killian Hurley:

That is very accurate. There are a number of centres that have a speciality interest and that has grown organically but not in a planned way. There are more centres in Dublin, Cork and Galway, but if we are talking about the entire west coast, especially up to County Donegal, there is very little care there really. I have patients who travel from Donegal or from the west to see us in Beaumont Hospital because they cannot get access to a centre on the west coast. There are services in Galway, but they are really stretched and they have to cover the whole western seaboard as well. There is definitely inequality in the care that is there.

Each of these centres does not have a full team. For example, we do not have a physiotherapist who can do pulmonary rehabilitation in Beaumont Hospital. Even though we have put in business cases, there is a recruitment pause or embargo right now so we do not have that team. Not every centre that sees patients has a full team that is able to provide a full service to patients.