Professor Oliver FitzGerald:

Many people have experienced the frustration that Deputy Butler described. The journey for patients with various musculoskeletal complaints is often frustrating and they end up being sent in a variety of directions without a diagnosis or treatment that will address the problem. A number of solutions are being proposed. The one that I am most familiar with – intervention by very highly-trained musculoskeletal physiotherapists – involves being seen by someone who is very highly trained in musculoskeletal disease. This is very different from the experience described by the Deputy. Experience working with the therapists, both in Ireland and abroad, has shown that they are more than capable of making a good diagnosis and establishing a good treatment plan. It is critical that this be achieved as early as possible.