Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I met some of the representatives outside the Kildare Street gates just last week and we discussed these issues.

The HSE’s national clinical programme for neurology has engaged with the patient organisations to identify service requirements for neurology nurse specialists. The clinical programme recognises the value of highly trained nursing staff and endorses the expansion of the neurology nursing workforce, including for Parkinson’s disease. I support it as well. Many years ago, I met patients with Parkinson’s. We went through the ratio of specialist nurses in the Republic versus Northern Ireland and the reality is that the ratios are much higher in Northern Ireland. We need to increase it, which is exactly the point of the Deputy’s question.

There are currently five Parkinson’s disease nurse specialists in acute neurology centres. The HSE plans to increase specialist nursing capacity in areas, including Parkinson’s. Building a specialist capacity of this nature takes several years. There is training, recruitment and deployment involved. The HSE will be guided by the work of the national clinical programme to ensure that priority is given to the areas of greatest geographical inequity to begin with and the neurology sub-specialties most in need. Parkinson’s must be one of the priorities. I do not believe we are providing the level of service that is required. I certainly will be looking to the next budget to begin to address that.

As well as this, the HSE implementation framework for the neurorehabilitation strategy also provides guidance for the development of specialist neurorehabilitation services across the continuum of care for people with conditions, including Parkinson’s and including in the community.

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