Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

According to newspaper reports, a recruitment ban means epilepsy units remain closed, even though 200 patients are on waiting lists. As epilepsy can be a life threatening illness, some of these individuals' lives are at risk. The two specialised units in question are crucial to assessing the appropriateness of epilepsy patients for surgery. They were closed, in spite of the fact that they were an intrinsic part of the HSE's draft national epilepsy care programme which was published in the spring of last year. The two units are located in Cork University Hospital and Beaumont Hospital in Dublin. Among their functions is identifying patients who may be suitable for surgery, diagnosis, observation, education and counselling. I have been contacted by a number of individuals on the waiting list and know some of them personally. They suffer from a debilitating illness.

I gather that the cost of upgrading the units is in the region of €900,000. I have to agree with Brainwave, the Irish epilepsy association, that it seems entirely illogical for the HSE to sanction the redevelopment of the monitoring units and then to decline to fund the staff required to make them operational. Beaumont Hospital was also to be the national epilepsy centre under the HSE's plans, but this development cannot proceed because the emergency monitoring unit is closed. It is expected that the facility in Cork University Hospital will open at some stage this year. However, we need more than an expectation because waiting lists continue to grow. We need a definite commitment on when the units will be staffed. This morning Professor Norman Delanty from Beaumont Hospital warned that he could not look after his patients properly and would be compelled to send them abroad for treatment unless the two units needed to monitor seizures were opened. He rightly pointed out that this would have obvious cost implications for the State.

It appears that the unit in Cork has not been informed that the unit in Beaumont Hospital is closed because it continues to refer patients to Dublin. I have been contacted by numerous people with epilepsy, including the parents of young children. They were repeatedly told that new units were about to come on stream to monitor their condition. I ask the Minister the reason the HSE is not taking a more proactive approach to providing staff in the light of the money already invested in these units.

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