Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this important issue and the Minister for replying to it. It is a serious situation in which the HSE has failed to provide a physiotherapist in the Drogheda-Dundalk region, which covers south Monaghan. I have raised this matter because in the last few days I have encountered two serious cases. I have a long letter on one case in which the patient fell ill last May and was transferred from Beaumont Hospital to Dún Laoghaire hospital on 9 June where she received eight weeks of treatment. This shows that she needed that type of support. When her husband took her home she was assured of all sorts of backup.

The HSE talks about home care packages, physiotherapy, and so on. However, this woman has not received anything. After much pressure she received a few sessions of physiotherapy in Drogheda. However, the Drogheda unit, according to the HSE a centre of excellence for the north east, no longer offers physiotherapy services to outpatients. Services at Monaghan General Hospital are being transferred to this centre of excellence. Having spent a period in Dún Laoghaire rehabilitation centre the 39 year old woman returned home but has received no physiotherapy to date. Is that a reasonable or realistic commitment after all the talk about home support and care? She did not receive a home care allowance either. Her husband had to take time off work to look after her. That she has not received physiotherapy is causing her serious problems and affecting her mentally. She was supposed to return to Beaumont Hospital for an appointment on 20 November but this was cancelled and rearranged for next year. Is this the health service to which that family is entitled when we have budgeted €14.5 billion in 2007? I urge the Minister of State to re-examine this situation and what is happening on the ground.

On a walk around Carrickmacross I met a young girl in a wheelchair who had undergone an operation. She cannot receive physiotherapy. Is this the appropriate treatment of a 17 year old who wishes to continue with her life but desperately needs help with cerebral palsy? No home help or physiotherapy is available. This is happening at the centre of excellence to which the colleague of the Minister of State is directing the people of Monaghan and Cavan, assuring them there will be no cutback in the Monaghan and Cavan service until a better service is available. Those in south Monaghan normally attend the hospitals at Drogheda or Louth.

Why are there no physiotherapists? The Minister of State was interviewed on "Today with Pat Kenny" but I listened to a father who complained that his daughter, a fully qualified physiotherapist, cannot find work. None of her classmates, nor those who qualify next year, will find work because of a recruitment embargo. While the embargo does not seem to affect sections of the HSE administration, it affects those in frontline care. I beg the Minister of State, for the sake of the 39 year old woman who is desperate and in serious difficulty, that she be provided with physiotherapy. I will gladly provide the Minister of State with details after the debate. An attempt has been made to facilitate these patients at Mount Hamilton House, Dundalk but neither has received confirmation that physiotherapy is available there. It is not available at Drogheda or Dundalk.

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