I ask the Minister for Health to provide extra funding to the Southern Health Board for the staffing of a dialysis unit in Tralee General Hospital. I thank the Cathaoirleach and the Minister for taking this very deserving motion on the Adjournment tonight. I propose to share my time with Senator Foley.
The counties concerned, Kerry and Cork, are the most densely populated in the country. I often come to Dublin via Cork and when I reach the Cork border on my way I am only half way there. That gives some idea of the distance people in Kerry have to travel for treatment in the dialysis unit in Cork.
The Kerry branch of the Irish Kidney Association was set up in Killarney in Autumn 1985. Subcommittees were set up in Tralee, Dingle and Castleisland. Subsequent fund raising quickly raised £90,000 for the purpose of providing a dialysis unit in Tralee General Hospital. This money is lodged in banks in Killarney and Dingle and could be used to provide the capital cost of a dialysis unit, but it is the Irish Kidney Association's policy not to contribute towards the running costs of a dialysis unit. At the February 1992 meeting of the Southern Health Board it was estimated that the total cost for such a service would be £20,000 per annum per patient. We have eight patients which would represent a total cost of £160,000. In 1991, the Southern Health Board contributed £25,407 towards the cost of transporting seven patients to and from Cork. The eighth patient has lately rejected a transplant kidney and is back on dialysis again. The Southern Health Board estimate the cost of running a dialysis unit at £60,000 for staff — one ward sister and four staff nurses. A registrar's half salary is £12,000, non-nursing salary is £10,000 and visiting consultants cost £15,000. That is a total of £97,000. Training costs are approximately £2,000 for staff.
In 1992, we have eight chemo dialysis patients who travel three days a week to Cork from all parts of the county for dialysis. In addiiton, five patients who are on home dialysis must also travel to Cork for regular examination. Patient A leaves Castleisland at 11.30 a.m. three days per week and returns at 7 p.m. He cannot work. Patient B leaves Asdee at 5 a.m., travels to Tralee which is 27 miles away and from there to Cork, which is another 70 miles, three days a week and is home at 3 p.m. This patient had a transplant in November 1991 which she quickly rejected and she is on dialysis now for a total of six years.
Patient C has diabetes, which causes renal failure and blindness. He had a transplant but rejected it in December 1991 and is back again on dialysis. He travels from Tralee three days a week to Cork. The other patients are from Kilflynn, Listowel, Dingle and two are from Killarney. The Dingle patient is able to continue working due to rearranging his schedule to incorporate an early morning dialysis session in Cork Regional Hospital. This necessitates leaving home at 5.45 a.m. three mornings a week. That patient is a neighbour of mine in Dingle and he is trying to carry on his business as best he can. He is a young man of about 40 years of age with a family and a large business. About six months ago he was operated on successfully in Beaumont and both his kidneys were removed. He is not sure what length of time he will have to wait for a kidney transplant. To go to Cork three times a week so early in the morning and arrive back home late in the evening is a great hardship for an able bodied person let alone a person who has to go on the dialysis unit for four to five hours in Cork.
The Kerry branch of the Irish Kidney Association will undertake to provide at Tralee General Hospital dialysis machines, a bicarbonate monitor, to change the wider filtration system and to replace existing equipment as necessary. The cost of a dialysis machine is £14,000 and the monitor £4,500. The Irish Kidney Association, Kerry branch, have £90,000 in a bank account. A ceiling of £90,000 was put on the collection by the Irish Kidney Association in Dublin until they received a guarantee from the Southern Health Board that such a unit would be put into the Tralee General Hospital. The people who responded so generously to the original appeal for funds in 1985 would again donate further funds for replacement equipment for a dialysis unit in Tralee.
The consultant staffing of the unit can be organised as is done, for example, in Letterkenny or in Waterford and there is no need for the employment of a fulltime specialist.
I appeal to the Minister to do everything in his power to alleviate the hardship of these people who must travel to Cork three days a week. I hope his response to the motion will be a favourable one or an indication that something will happen shortly in Tralee.
