Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all Deputies for their contributions and support. I hope the debate will serve to put neurorehabilitation services and the need for them front and centre. I hope Deputies will forgive me - I know that the Minister of State will do so - if I finish on a more local note. It has been estimated that Ireland should have 270 neurorehabilitation inpatient beds for the size of its population. However, we have less than half of that number and none of them is outside Dublin.

With reference to the particular case in the south of the country, numerous reports have highlighted the critical need to provide a dedicated specialist rehabilitation unit to serve the needs of the population of the area. Patients from the south account for one in four referrals to the National Rehabilitation Hospital. Individual reports in 2000, 2003, 2007, 2008 and 2011 all pointed to the need for a specialist medical rehabilitation service to meet the needs of people with neurological conditions in counties Cork and Kerry. The report on the reconfiguration of acute hospital services in counties Cork and Kerry in 2011 published by the HSE clearly states:

Cork and Kerry need an acute rehabilitation medicine service that would provide a post-acute specialist rehabilitation service for acquired brain injury and neurological diagnoses for those between 18 and 65 years of age. The service should be led by a consultant in rehabilitation medicine linked to the NRH in Dublin and supported by a regional rehabilitation co-ordinator and a multidisciplinary professional team, including a clinical neuro-psychologist.

It specifically highlighted that "the presence of specialists in rehabilitation medicine would be of considerable benefit to the health service of Cork and Kerry". It is now six years since the publication of that report and there is still no dedicated specialist medical rehabilitation unit in the south for people with a neurological disability. One part-time consultant is in place, but there are no dedicated beds in any of the local hospitals. I am sure the Minister of State agrees that we need to do much better than this.

I have brought the motion before the House because I believe the case for the provision of these services is overwhelming. It is made with powerful advocacy by the Neurologicial Alliance of Ireland. I will finish with the words of its executive director in a letter to The Irish Times:

Neurorehabilitation services promote recovery and prevent and delay disability. They enable people to go to work, contribute meaningfully to family and community life and, most significantly, avoid becoming dependent on already severely restricted health services. Without such services, people remain unnecessarily in hospital, exist in nursing homes that are not suited to their needs or continue to live with families who are not able to cope.

The case is clear. It is now time to act.

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