Ms Magdalen Rogers:

The addition of three specialist nurses to University Hospital Galway is very important and we warmly welcome it, although, as the Senator said, there is still a shortfall in specialist nursing in the hospital. It will take time to recruit and train the nurses. It is important that those nurses bed down in the system but also that there be longer term planning to address that shortfall. The shortfall in the hospital is critical, not least in order for the service to meet its requirements and serve the large catchment areas it has in University Hospital Galway.

The hospital neurology services and the community neurorehabilitation services complement each other. They are both essential to the care of the patient. We are hearing from the acute neurology services that not having community neurorehabilitation teams in place means they have no service to discharge people into the community once they have finished their hospital care and got their diagnosis and immediate care in the hospital. There is a revolving door whereby people are dependent on acute hospital services for their ongoing access to therapies, and the acute hospital neurology services cannot meet their needs.

Having fully resourced acute hospital neurology services within the hospitals is critical and nurse specialists are very important to that. We really appreciate the support of the campaign and the increasing resourcing for nurse specialists. The resourcing of community neurorehabilitation teams is a critical part of neurological care services.