Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

A prosthetic clinic has been operating in St. Mary's Orthopaedic Hospital, Cork, for the past 21 years. I have testimony after testimony from patients, their parents and four plastic surgeons attesting to the quality, speed and delivery of services at this clinic. One of its patients recently participated and won a medal at the Paralympic Games. Her prosthesis was admired by other athletes for its flexibility and quality. The clinic in question deals mainly with children who have lost a limb, usually a leg, through meningitis or congenital deformity for example. The clinic has ensured they have a service second to none.

The clinic, however, is about to become defunct. I must declare an interest. The National Rehabilitation Hospital was extraordinarily good to me when I had to attend it and no one would deny it provides an excellent service. However, recently its consultant rehabilitation medical clinical director sent a letter to St. Mary's Orthopaedic Hospital stating that because the manufacture of prosthesis is not regulated, the clinic must be shut down and a new supplier put in place, Ability Matters, an English company with clinics in other parts of the country. When I checked its website, it appeared to deal mainly with aids for the elderly. While I do not doubt the company does a good job, in this case the provider does not know the children in question.

There also seems to be a large move towards centralising services. For the past five years I have been seeking the roll-out of the National Rehabilitation Hospital's services in the Cork area. What Cork does not need is a new provider of prostheses. A female doctor in a report on prosthetic clinical delivery in 1998 for the then Southern Health Board stated St. Mary's Orthopaedic Hospital was much more satisfactory on all counts with a strong emphasis on the humane aspects of service provision related to the economic support and information. The report further stated the average cost of a prosthesis per patient at the National Rehabilitation Hospital was 16% higher than at St. Mary's hospital.

The director of the Cork clinic told me of fitting the first limbs for a girl when she was a year old. She still returns to him at 21. This shows how some of the patients have developed with the clinic. One mother informed me how the clinic has no waiting list for children. If a child requires a prosthesis, it is made at the clinic. If it needs adjustment, as a result of growth, or a repair, it will be done on the same day. One cannot tell a child who outgrows his or her prosthesis that he or she will not get one for another six months. Instead, they would be condemned to a wheelchair and immobility. Moving this clinic makes no sense and should be stopped.

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