John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, success in her new role. I look forward to working with her over the coming years in what is a very difficult area and a challenge for all of us. Today, I wish to specifically mention a very serious situation we have in University Hospital Kerry whereby we do not have an acute stroke unit. There have been great strides and progress made in many hospitals around the country. At present, 29 hospitals are serving stroke patients and 21 of those have an acute stroke unit. Unfortunately, University Hospital Kerry does not have one.

I wish to bring the Minister of State's attention to a report produced by the national stroke programme on the stroke services in University Hospital Kerry. The critical findings show that University Hospital Kerry does not provide an organised service for stroke or minimum mini-stroke patients. It does not have a dedicated stroke unit and it does not have a clinical lead for stroke treatment. It does not have a clinical nurse specialist in stroke treatment. It does not add to the national stroke register and it does not have access to early support discharge. Those findings are startling. It also states that these deficits would not only impact on death and disability, but would also impact on stroke standards, for example, early swallow screening, ongoing staff training, and patient and family education and support. The report adds that mortality for ischemic strokes - those essentially involved in the blockage of arteries supplying blood to the brain - are the cause of the majority of strokes and are 40% higher than that of the national average. It concludes that University Hospital Kerry is not providing an organised stroke service for its population. While national stroke services have improved significantly since the stroke audit in 2008, this is not reflected in University Hospital Kerry.

I have spoken to the doctors in Kerry hospital. Since the departure of a dedicated stroke specialist three years ago, that position has not been filled. There is still no filling of the clinical nurse specialist position. There was a post which was transferred to rheumatology due to financial constraint. That needs to be brought back. There is a lot of work that needs to be done immediately. There is a system failure here. The Irish Heart Foundation, which does fantastic work in this area, has flagged Kerry hospital as being one that it is extremely concerned about. My concern is greater than the lack of the acute stroke unit alone. Kerry hospital is supposed to provide this and if it does not, patients will start going to Limerick and Cork and there is the threat that the status of Kerry hospital will be challenged. There are wide-ranging implications around this issue and there needs to be immediate action. People's lives are at stake.

See this speech in context