Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the lack of physiotherapy services to meet the needs of children in the west. It is timely that this Commencement matter is being heard today after last night's programme on RTE. I commend RTE on the programme and on highlighting what all of us know has been happening for many years, which is that people are suffering in pain while they wait for vital treatment. I hope the focus on the issue in the RTE programme will provoke consciousness among those making decisions in this area. This morning the Minister said it was unacceptable and it is certainly unacceptable to those waiting in pain. It is also unacceptable for those waiting in pain every day for physiotherapy services.

Notwithstanding the numerous representations I receive from parents all over County Mayo, I was prompted to raise this case by a particular woman in the county. She is called Karen and she has an eight year old son, Jack, who has cerebral palsy. Four years ago Jack had surgery, without which he was facing life in a wheelchair. It was not available in Ireland so he had it in the United States after fund-raising €70,000 in the local community. On returning, and on the advice of doctors in the US, Jack began a physiotherapy programme at First Step therapy in Patrickswell in County Limerick, the only place other than Dún Laoghaire where this particular physiotherapy, called spider cage and lokomat therapy, was available. The complex surgery that was carried out in the USA requires this specific type of physiotherapy in order to get maximum benefits. The therapy that Jack receives through the HSE is just 45 minutes, twice a month, which is inadequate in terms of both the amount he needs and the type of physiotherapy he requires. The therapy is paid for entirely by the family with no support from the HSE. He attends this centre every second weekend for two hours, on a Friday evening and again on a Saturday morning, and all of it is self-funded with Karen footing the cost for the diesel and fund-raising for the cost of accommodation and the therapy itself. This works out at between €400 and €500 for each trip. Why should parents like Karen have to depend on charity fund-raising to provide this vital treatment to keep her son from being wheelchair bound? Without the follow-up care the surgery becomes less and less effective. The physiotherapy is not an optional extra but essential for Jack to have any quality of life to alleviate his pain.

I have travelled to Limerick with Karen and Jack to see the great work being done by the First Step rehabilitation centre, which was opened several years ago by then Minister for Health, Mary Harney. I am asking for two things from the Minister today. Jack is not the only person in this situation and I am only using him as an example of what children have to go through when they do not have this vital physiotherapy available to them in their local areas, by which I do not mean their own parish or county but their region. Is it possible for the HSE to put in place a funding mechanism that would help Karen and other families pay for travel, accommodation and the therapy which is needed for their children? Can he instruct the HSE to carry out a full cost-benefit analysis on the setting up of similar physiotherapy centres in each province to meet the needs of children?