Neurorehabilitation facilities
Deputy Burke asked when neurorehabilitation teams would be rolled out across all CHO areas and pressed for facilities in Cork and elsewhere. The Minister said 23 posts had been sanctioned, new teams were being established, and national coverage would follow.
Next week is national brain awareness week. I take this opportunity to raise need for neurorehabilitation facilities in the nine community healthcare organisation, CHO, areas. My understanding is that funding for this year has been set aside for the facilities in CHOs 2 and 4. When will the programme in this regard be rolled out in those two areas? When will neurorehabilitation teams be put in place in the other five CHO areas? The expectation is that there would be a saving of 42,000 bed days if we had a neurorehabilitation team in each of the CHO areas. A person spends an average of 13.6 days in hospital as a result of not having access to teams in their areas.
Comment on this
I thank the Deputy. This is something that Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan and I discussed when we met the neurorehabilitation advocates this morning in the audiovisual room. We have some really positive news on this matter.
In last year's budget, we started a significant roll-out of community-based neurorehabilitation services by providing for 23 neurorehabilitation nurses to begin with. New training and education places are being put in place.
On the Deputy's specific question about Cork, one of the two new teams that are being put in place will be in Cork University Hospital, CUH. It will be attached to the major trauma centre. This will be very useful in terms of continuity of care and integrated care. The new trauma centre will be a state-of-the-art facility. Our objective is to have multidisciplinary neurorehabilitation teams in all of the CHO areas. These will then be wrapped into the regional health areas as they come together.
What I want to say to Deputy Colm Burke and other Deputies - I know colleagues right across the House have a very strong interest in this - is what we are doing this year is just the start. We have had three teams in place for a while, and the 23 nurses who will come into post this year are important. However, this is only one step in the process. Our plan is that we will have proper community-based rehabilitation services in respect of a range of diseases such as multiple sclerosis, MS, Parkinson's and many others.