Deputy Dick Spring gave me notice of his intention to raise on the Adjournment the serious difficulties being experienced by people in Kerry who are being deprived of outpatient physiotherapy services in Tralee General Hospital; and the steps which the Minister for Health is taking to reduce the waiting list which at present contains some 200 names.
Adjournment Debate. - County Kerry Physiotherapy Services.
I am indeed grateful to you, Sir, for giving me this opportunity of raising my concern in the House in relation to the disastrous situation which now exists in the General Hospital in Tralee and for patients in County Kerry.
The situation, as I understand it, is that in 1984 there were ten physiotherapists employed in the General Hospital in Tralee. At present there are 7.5 persons, if there can be such, comprising six full-time and three persons job-sharing. Of those 7.5 persons, two are on maternity leave, one is on compassionate leave and one is on sick leave. That leaves us with a complement of 3.5 persons available to provide physiotherapy for the General Hospital in Tralee.
The Health Board, in defending this situation, say they have no choice but to temporarily discontinue the outpatient service. Using the expression "temporarily discontinue" is stretching the meaning of language because this is at least the third occasion in the last six months that the service has been discontinued and "temporarily" will now come to mean "permanently" because the facilities for outpatients' physiotherapy have been closed more often than open in the past 12 months.
Some of the consequences of this are disastrous. The doctors and consultants treating patients are insisting that physiotherapy is required to bring patients back to good health. In some cases it is costing the Department of Health more money to provide the treatment which is necessary and prescribed by the medical personnel. In one case a patient, a teenage boy, had to spend four weeks in a hospital in Cork because he was not able to avail of outpatient service in Tralee, thus costing the health board many more hundreds of pounds which would not have been spent if outpatient service was available in Tralee.
Just this week the same suggestion has been made by the medical personnel that another person seeking physiotherapy in Tralee outpatient service will have to go to hospital in Dublin for four weeks to avail of inpatient physiotherapy in Dublin whereas outpatient physiotherapy services in Tralee could suffice. Another patient this week has informed me he has to travel to Dublin for three days per week thus incurring costs on the health board and on himself and his family. I have heard of a number of cases during the summer. A 70 year old patient who suffered a stroke was striving valiantly to attend the wedding of his only daughter when the service was stopped. These are the human, tragic cases, unfortunately, but they are becoming the norm when it comes to the requirements of the population in Kerry. A patient suffering from multiple sclerosis who broke a limb recently was told by his doctor he will be confined to a chair unless he gets adequate physiotherapy services as a matter of urgency.
I would say to the Minister of State that the situation as it stands is in crisis. There are 200 people waiting for physiotherapy services in the county of Kerry and as things stand at the moment the outlook is indeed very bleak. They need the service, and I would ask the Minister for Health to take a personal interest in providing adequate staffing and resources so that a basic service can be offered. If we cannot give the absolute, 100 per cent Rolls Royce service that people are crying out for, let us at least try to meet them halfway and give them some semblance of an outpatient physiotherapy service in the General Hospital in Tralee.
I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak on this matter for the second time this week. As I pointed out to Deputy Deenihan on Tuesday last, 20 November, in reply to his statement that night, the provision of physiotherapy services at Tralee General Hospital is a matter, in the first instance, for the Southern Health Board.
Tralee General Hospital has a staff complement of eight physiotherapists, there were ten posts there in 1986.
One of the physiotherapists at that time opted to transfer, within the Southern Health Board system, to Killarney and operate full time there, so the staff complement serving the area has not been reduced except for one person who opted for voluntary redundancy.
There are at present six full time staff and three other staff who are job sharing providing physiotherapy services. Of these staff two members are on maternity leave, one member is on compassionate leave and another member is on sick leave. Due to this unavoidable combination of circumstances, caused by the unavoidable temporary absence of these four staff, it has been necessary to temporarily suspend the physiotherapy outpatient service. The Southern Health Board are making every effort to replace the staff on leave on a daily basis but have not been successful as yet due to the difficulty in recruiting replacement staff for short periods. However, arrangements for an emergency service have been made.
The Southern Health Board are reviewing the situation with a view to restoring the service as quickly as possible and the inpatient service is not affected. I would like to take this opportunity to emphasise once more that the difficulties here are not due to any financial restriction. I am fully aware of the personal interests of both Deputies Spring and Deenihan on this matter. I have spoken personally on the matter with Deputy Deenihan and he agrees that there is a major problem in recruiting physiotherapists at the moment. I am sure Deputy Spring is fully aware of it also. I can assure Deputy Spring and the House that the Southern Health Board are making every effort to restore maximum service immediately.