Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the work done by Deputy Murphy O'Mahony and the Fianna Fáil health team in tabling this Private Members' motion. In Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Louth, the latest figures for the number of people waiting to get treated at the National Rehabilitation Hospital, NRH, was four, with those four waiting for three months, which is the average waiting time to get a bed in the NRH. In a hospital like Our Lady of Lourdes, which has 235 beds, approximately four beds are occupied at any one time by patients waiting for rehabilitation treatment. This equates to in excess of 360 bed days lost in that three-month period or 1,440 in any one year. Nationwide, there are 126 people on the waiting list for the NRH. That is a great deal of bed occupancy and trolley waiting time that could be alleviated.

I have been told that the NRH prioritises clients based on their rehabilitation potential. As such, many of those waiting never even get to the hospital. Many families have to source private treatment in the meantime and many patients end up in nursing homes. One in three people who require rehabilitation never get it.

Earlier this year, 12 beds at a specialist brain and spinal injuries facility were lying empty due to chronic shortages of staff at the rehab centre in Dún Laoghaire. That was despite a waiting list at the time of 226 patients seeking treatment. I know of many cases where delays in assessments and proper rehabilitation treatment have been detrimental to patients' final prognoses. One such person would certainly be walking now rather than confined to a wheelchair if an assessment and proper physiotherapy had been available early to her.

With Parkinson's disease, there is growing evidence that early intervention may help to preserve the functioning of neurons, reducing symptoms, in particular difficulty with or distortion in performing voluntary movements, slowing disease progression, improving patients' prognoses and, in turn, reducing the overall costs associated with this debilitating disease. Not only would early intervention in Parkinson's cases have a significant impact on health care costs, but it would ease the burden for families who are all too well aware of the detrimental effects of delayed diagnosis.

There have been many cases of people waiting seven to nine months for beds in the NRH. This is frustrating for the patients and their families, as any delay in commencing rehabilitation is detrimental to the final prognosis.

I could make many points about speedier access to MRI scans for diagnosis and the need for investment in that regard but, in sharing time, I am conscious of giving others the opportunity to contribute. We must consider how to get this service correct if we are to progress the available facilities for others.

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