Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, to the House and thank him for taking this matter. Like most people, I am not quite sure how to pronounce the name of this drug, Duodopa, but this is my best shot. It is the only flippant remark I can make about this, as it is otherwise a very serious matter.

Duodopa is a pump-based system that infuses a liquid form of Parkinson's disease medication, levodopa, to provide more consistent relief of symptoms on a minute-by-minute basis. It is very effective and there are approximately 100 patients in Ireland who would benefit from it. Patients would typically claw back three to four hours per day of normal function that would previously have been lost to immobility. There is no question as to its clinical benefit and it is generally used in patients with the most significant disability and who therefore have most to gain from its use. It is worth noting that without it, people may be housebound and reliant on carers, presenting both the people in question and the State with a cost that must be factored into assessments.

This issue relates to 100 patients from 10,000 sufferers of Parkinson's disease, or 1% of the total, but for those 100 people it is the difference between having some sort of quality of life and none. The drug is everything to them. It is like winning the lottery because it provides quality of life for them and their families, loved ones and carers. It is critical to those 100 cases. We are talking about 100 individuals rather than any type of statistic. The National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics found it cost-effective at a cost of €30,000 per year. It would be transformative for those who get it.

A separate but related matter is the development of the national deep brain stimulation service in the Mater and Beaumont hospitals. Deep brain stimulation is a surgical treatment for Parkinson's disease that is an alternative to Duodopa and is relevant for approximately 5% of patients, or 500 people. People have traditionally gone to the UK for this treatment.That is hardly satisfactory in a Covid context or in any other context. Professor Tim Lynch of the Mater hospital, Dr. Richard Walsh of Beaumont Hospital and Ms Catherine Moran of Mater and Beaumont hospitals, as well as a very nice and helpful nurse named Katrina with whom I had a conversation - I apologise that I do not have her surname before me - and who is extraordinarily helpful and committed to this cause, are all working on this issue. There are approximately 50 patients waiting for surgery and they hope to perform the first deep brain stimulation in Beaumont hospital this year. A business case for funding for this initiative has gone to the HSE. The Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, allocated €50 million for new therapies in the budget and he specifically mentioned Parkinson's disease in his remarks. Duodopa and deep brain stimulation are central to all of this. I look forward to the reply of the Minister of State.