Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving us the opportunity to raise this. There comes a time when official replies do not always tally with what is happening in broader community and society. This is an occasion where we have to address an underlying problem, the fact that the withdrawal of the Versatis patch has left many people with pain thresholds they can no longer tolerate, anxiety and concerns. There is no doubt that there has been a huge escalation in the prescribing of the patch and in the demands on the budget. At the same time, we have to accept that many people claim that this has had a major impact on their lives with regard to their ability to deal with pain. Some of the longest waiting lists in the country include very long waits in the area of neurological illnesses and diseases and waiting for outpatient and inpatient appointments with neurological consultants and neurosurgeons. That was only alluded to last week in the context of parliamentary replies in this Chamber last Thursday. Huge numbers of people need this patch to function on a daily basis because they are waiting for a long time to see consultants or to get treatment for a neurological condition. At the same time, we now have a situation where there is withdrawal of reimbursement and a change of what it can be prescribed for. When a huge cohort of people are saying things, highlighting them on "Liveline" and in many other fora, and are contacting our offices, it reminds me of the time of the medical card debacle of 2014 when officialdom told us that there was no change of policy but at the same time it was evident that the change was having a profound impact on people's lives. Those decisions had to be reversed subsequently because they were wrong in the first instance.

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