Batt O'Keeffe
Ceist:164 Mr. B. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Health the action, if any, he proposes to take on the long waiting list for artificial limb fittings in the Cork area. [24707/96]
Written Answers. - Hospital Waiting Lists.
Limerick East): This is one of the services which has been examined by the Review Group on Services for People with Physical and Sensory Disabilities. The report of the review group will be published shortly and will provide a blueprint for the development of services over the next five years. I will examine the limb fitting service in the context of the implementation of the recommendations of the review group.
Batt O'Keeffe
Ceist:165 Mr. B. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Health his views on the difficulties being experienced by general practitioners in the Southern Health Board area in referring patients to alcohol and drug treatment centres. [24708/96]
Limerick East): The Southern Health Board is responsible for the delivery of health services, including mental health services, in its functional area. The report of the study group on the development of the mental health services, Planning for the Future, which was published in 1984 and which has been accepted as mental health policy by successive Governments, recommended that the emphasis on the management of chemical dependency problems should be on community-based interventions rather than specialist in-patient treatment. It is the policy of the Southern Health Board to develop its treatment facilities for chemical dependency in line with this recommendation and I am informed by the board that there is at present a range of treatment and rehabilitation services provided by both the board itself and voluntary and private agencies.
The Southern Health Board's approach has been to develop a service where dependency and addiction arising from alcohol and substance misuse should be treated in specialist chemical dependency units on an out-patient basis rather than in a psychiatric hospital. The board's model for this can be found in Arbour House in Cork which was founded in 1984. The success of the out-patient treatment provided at Arbour House is reflected in the continuing decline in the numbers of patients admitted for treatment to the board's psychiatric hospitals in Cork. The board's plans for the further development of the service includes the establishment in Kerry of a treatment unit based on the Arbour House model. The board's psychiatric hospitals provide treatment for the small number of patients who do not respond to out-patient care. I am informed by the board that it has established a sub-committee to examine treatment and rehabilitation needs in its functional area and that the Irish College of General Practitioners is represented on the sub-committee. The Director of Arbour House has also met with medical and administrative staff of the board's general practitioner unit in order to develop close liaison and co-ordination with general practitioners in the area. The board's staff continue to be available to meet with any general practitioner who is experiencing difficulties in referring patients for treatment.