James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am very grateful to the Deputy for providing me with the opportunity to speak on this matter.

Improvements in stroke services were envisioned in the Changing Cardiovascular Health: Cardiovascular Health Policy 2010-2019, which was launched in 2010. The policy establishes a framework for the prevention, detection and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, including stroke, which seeks to ensure an integrated and quality assured approach in their management to reduce the burden of these conditions.

The Health Service Executive has advised my Department that the situation with Cork University Hospital, CUH, is that it provides a full and comprehensive range of services for the victims of stroke. These services include neuro-radiology, including intra-arterial thrombolysis, acute neurology and elderly care medicine, which, when taken together, designate CUH as providing a comprehensive range of stroke related services.

To enhance this service delivery further and to provide a dedicated facility for stroke services, the executive management board at CUH allocated ward 3A as a suitable location for a stroke unit to be shared with the epilepsy and neurology services. When fully operational, ward 3A will comprise 11 stroke beds, 13 neurology beds and a four-bed epilepsy monitoring unit with video telemetry.

Funding of €25,000 was provided by the national stroke programme to enable some infrastructural upgrading of the ward. This work has been completed for some time, and Cork University Hospital has been working on progressing the staffing of the unit. The stroke unit will be staffed by relocating some existing staff from within the hospital and the recruitment of additional staff. The stroke unit includes a four-bed high dependency unit, HDU, which requires higher staffing levels. The HDU is where stroke patients who meet clear clinical criteria will receive thrombolysis. Currently, in many cases, this is provided in the emergency department. The new stroke unit will lead to this treatment being provided in a safer, more appropriate environment.

The delay in opening the unit is primarily attributed to difficulties in the recruitment of the additional staff required for the unit. Cork University Hospital has put in place a staffing plan based on training up a number of more experienced nurses who work in the hospital to allow them to work in the high dependency unit, but their current positions must be backfilled before they can be released.

Over recent months Cork University Hospital has engaged in a number of extensive recruitment campaigns with a view to recruiting additional nurses for the hospital. These nurses are required to replace those nurses who have left the hospital through resignation or retirement, and to staff new developments such as the stroke unit. While these recruitment campaigns have made progress in the recruitment of nurses for Cork University Hospital, the hospital has not yet reached the level of staffing required to allow the stroke unit to open.

A further series of interviews for nursing posts in Cork University Hospital commenced this week on 26 November. It is anticipated that these interviews will yield a sufficient number of nurses to allow the unit to open. The opening date for the unit will depend on how soon the new nurses can commence, but management in Cork University Hospital are confident they will have adequate nurse staffing levels to open the unit in late January or early February of next year.

Cork University Hospital provides an excellent service to stroke patients and the opening of the stroke unit later this year will further enhance the service available.

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