Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

When will the Minister employ a pain consultant for children with chronic pain? We have a family in Limerick where one of the parents and two of the children were diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Patches for pain alone cost €130 for one child and this is not covered under the medical card scheme. These children are in chronic pain. The pain gets so bad that the child falls unconscious. Some 16 times in the last eight months there has been an ambulance transfer to the accident and emergency department. With no dedicated pain consultant assigned to under 12s, the HSE has directed them to rheumatology, which is not effective as they say they are not trained in this syndrome. The public are on waiting lists for rheumatology of two and a half to three years. They have been promised a consultant from Belfast but this has not materialised. A waiting list for physiotherapy is up to two years currently and there are 5,300 signatures to a petition looking for a pain consultant. This mother is distraught and has been up all night with her children crying. It is not satisfactory and I need the Minister's help.

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