Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 July 2022
85. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Health if he will address concerns that an estimated 21% of persons with Parkinson’s disease reported having had access to a Parkinson’s disease nurse specialist since diagnosis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38142/22]
View answerDeputy Michael Collins will take this on behalf of Deputy Nolan.
The Parkinson’s Association of Ireland is looking for proper care for people with Parkinson’s disease nationally in Ireland. With only a small number of specialised Parkinson’s nurses in Ireland, we are nationally falling way behind. There is a need for at least 20 specialised Parkinson’s nurses in Ireland. The very least that should happen in this budget is the Government should set aside funding for six this year. The Minister might be able to tell us his plans in relation to Parkinson’s sufferers in this budget.
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.
I thank the Minister for his reply. I would like to also acknowledge Deputy Nolan who put this question together for me.
We hosted the Parkinson’s Association of Ireland and the Minister met representatives from it outside the gates before they came into the audiovisual room. They were from Cork, Dublin and elsewhere in the country. We were told that there has been no Parkinson’s consultant in Cork University Hospital, CUH, since 2016. There has been a promise of replacement time after time for years, but still nothing. We were also told there have been no specialist Parkinson’s nurses in Cork since 2021. That is an astonishing situation that Parkinson’s sufferers are finding themselves in. Imagine that there has been no consultant there since 2016. This is an unfair situation that the people of Cork and Munster find themselves in. I know it is a national issue that there is a lack of specialised nurses, and the Minister said there are only five in total. It is a national issue, yes, but it certainly is a crisis issue in Cork. I would appreciate if the Minister might address that in his answer.
I recognise there is a shortage in the Cork and Munster area. In fact, it was one of the things that was raised in the conversation I had with the representative from the patient group just last week. The Deputy's question was whether we can we look at Cork and the Munster area as one of the areas that clearly does not have the level of resources that it needs and, therefore, is one of the areas that can be prioritised. The answer is “Yes”. We can of course look at that.
There is annual funding of nearly €3 million provided to the first managed clinical rehab network. The pilot project accepts patients on referral from hospitals.
It uses multidisciplinary teams to serve patients with complex needs who do not need inpatient facilities. The lessons from the demonstrator pilot will help to inform this national roll-out. It will consider experiences and outcomes for all neurological conditions.
I thank the Minister for his reply. Three weeks ago, I was invited to a house in my constituency to meet a person suffering from Parkinson's disease. When I got there, I found out that three people in that family have Parkinson's disease. The sad thing is that I could not advise them where to go. The only help I could offer them was Tony Wilkinson. I hope he is tuning in to these proceedings because he has done Trojan work on behalf of Parkinson's sufferers throughout the country. I think the Minister met him outside the gates of Leinster House last week. The only person I could send them to was a person who himself suffers from Parkinson's. He is an expert and a genuine person who gives hours every day trying to help people but he is not a specialised nurse and should not be treated as such. People with Parkinson's are suffering from falls, costing the State millions of euro, but they could get a little help if specialised nurses are put in place, whether in Cork or throughout the country. I would appreciate it if that were addressed straight away.
I thank the Deputy. I did meet Tony Wilkinson outside the gates of Leinster House. At the moment, there are five Parkinson's disease nurse specialists in the acute section, that is, in acute neurology. They are in Limerick, St. Vincent's, Tallaght, the Mater and Galway hospitals. The Deputy made the point that we do not have one of the nurse specialists in Cork at the moment. That is something we need to address. We also need to do so in the context of other parts of the country. The aim of the national clinical programme for neurology is equitable access to a high-quality service. That has to guide where we invest and where we deploy specialist nurses, both in terms of the clinical area, namely, Parkinson's disease, and, as the Deputy stated, the geographical area, recognising that there is no such nurse specialist in that area at the moment.
