Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to share time with my good colleague, Senator Buttimer. I will outline the facts from letters I received. Cork University Hospital, CUH, is the south-west region's centre for neurology but is short of neurology nurse specialists. Patients are unnecessarily waiting longer for diagnosis and treatment. Based on the catchment area, national and international guidelines recommend that there should be 20 neurology nurse specialists, but there are only four in Cork. This is a disgrace.

I have already confessed that I suffer from a neurological ailment. God forbid if somebody in west Cork or south Kerry, a long way from the CUH, had a seizure or difficulty and got to CUH to find he or she is waiting on a trolley because of the lack of neurological specialist nurses. It is a disgrace. In Dublin, you have several hospitals you can fall back on, like St. James's, Beaumont, Mater private and others, but the south west is being neglected. It is a life-threatening situation when there is a neurological emergency.

I urge the Minister of State to reflect on this. If there were 16 neurological nurse specialists in the CUH for this region, I probably would not complain. However, four is one fifth or 20% of what national and international guidelines suggest. I will hand over to Senator Buttimer, who is far closer to CUH than I am and who is probably more knowledgeable than me about this issue.