Gay Mitchell
Ceist:176 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will make a statement on the concerns of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 7 regarding the audiology service. [12813/01]
Written Answers - Audiological Services.
The provision of audiological services is a matter in the first instance for the Eastern Regional Health Authority – ERHA – and the health boards.
Following the dissolution of the National Rehabilitation Board in June 2000, the responsibility for the provision of audiology services throughout the regions was assigned initially to the Northern Area Health Board of the ERHA pending each health board taking over direct responsibility for the services within its own region.
The chief executive officer of the ERHA has advised me that the authority has been actively seeking to recruit suitably qualified staff to fill vacancies in the service with little success. The national audiology advisory group is examining ways to increase the availability of qualified audiology staff and the ERHA is now encouraging all health boards to sponsor suitable students for training courses in both audiology and audiological science. Currently four students are attending the audiology training course in Belfast being sponsored by health boards and one health board audiologist will commence a course in audiological science in Manchester later this year. The ERHA is also undertaking a review of audiology services in the eastern region and a committee has been established to oversee this review.