Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Murphy O'Mahony and the Neurological Alliance of Ireland for helping to draft the motion and I thank Deputy Murphy O'Mahony for proposing it.

This is an extremely important and timely motion. More than a year ago, I raised with the Minister of State the We Need our Heads Examined campaign. While we have heard some fine words in the meantime, unfortunately, precious little action has been taken. As a previous speaker noted, more than 25,000 people struggle each year to access the neurorehabilitation services they need to prevent disability and support recovery from conditions, including stroke, spinal cord injury, acquired brain injury, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease. The gap between demand and capacity for specialist rehabilitation services is ever widening. Unfortunately, the services have not kept pace with developments in the acute sector and now lag behind acute services. As a result, large numbers of patients are discharged from hospital each year with a neurological diagnosis that would benefit from the input of a specialised community neurorehabilitation team but are unable to access rehabilitation services.

When I spoke to the Minister of State well over a year ago, I raised the case of Vera Ronan whose daughter, Natalie, became a tireless campaigner with the Neurological Alliance of Ireland when she saw what happened to her mother after she was left in a hospital bed without the support and services she needed. It is unacceptable that Vera Ronan was taking up a hospital bed, while others waited in the emergency department. There are patients like her all over the country who could have their needs more appropriately served outside the hospital environment if there was sufficient capacity in the system to facilitate this. We must, as a matter of urgency, move to deliver more neurorehabilitation services in a community setting. We must stop the unfair practice of inappropriately discharging patients to nursing home care settings. Many of those in nursing homes should not be there and require services to help them to live the best possible lives in their own homes and communities, rather than in an inappropriate setting.

The unfortunate reality is that people with neurological conditions spend significantly more time in hospital than is necessary. We all agree on the need for a person-centred, co-ordinated approach to patient care, with co-ordinated case management of patients, leading to improved patient outcomes and experiences. The development of appropriately resourced interdisciplinary inpatient, outpatient and home and community based specialist rehabilitation teams supported by education and training is required. Furthermore, waiting times for assessment and access to inpatient and community rehabilitation services and standardised pathways for people who require neurorehabilitation must be reduced. In the absence of a guarantee that these services will be provided, we will continue to pay lip service to the problem.

The Minister of State referred to the National Rehabilitation Hospital. The redevelopment of the hospital will not offer a panacea. The redevelopment project which is due for completion in 2019 will not address the lack of capacity because the old hospital will cease offering rehabilitative services. The Neurological Alliance of Ireland and a number of speakers made good suggestions which must be given careful consideration.

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