Research study: The Government has been accused of not tackling the problem of incontinence among older people, and squandering millions of euro in needless treatments for those who suffer from it.
Now a group of doctors has launched a campaign to lobby the Government to implement a national strategy to address the matter.
The group has conducted its own research on the problem in the Republic and claims the cost of treating incontinence in women alone is around €95 million a year. It says almost 700,000 people suffer some form of incontinence.
The group argues that incontinence is a common problem with huge social and economic implications, affecting all age groups. "It is estimated to affect a larger percentage of the population than cancer, cardiac disease, etc," it says.
It also points out that as the population moves towards an older profile, the problem will become bigger.
"International research shows that incontinence is often the trigger which leads to older people going into residential and nursing care and increases their average length of stay," according to a study, which the group commissioned and will present to the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, this month.
The study says Ireland is out of step with international standards and that incontinence is both preventable and treatable.
Dr Barry O'Reilly, chairman and a founder member of the Continence Foundation of Ireland, said: "Sometimes it is only a matter of cutting caffeine and doing exercises, other times medication or minimally invasive surgery is needed."
Dr O'Reilly, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Cork University Hospital, said there was a national cancer strategy and, similarly, there should be an incontinence strategy.
He said the extent of the problem must be established. He and a group of gynaecologists and urologists commissioned a feasibility study for such a strategy and extrapolated numbers based on research conducted in Australia, Canada and Britain. This was because studies had not been done in Ireland.
The group argues that the first step must be to define the extent of the problem to implement the appropriate approach measures to combat the problem.
"Incontinence is a quality of life issue," Dr O'Reilly said. "A national strategy would also help to keep people out of hospitals."
Dr O'Reilly also pointed out that elderly patients who woke up during the night to use the toilet were more at risk of falling or tripping, which directly linked incontinence to falls and hip fractures.
"They may end up in A&E, on a trolley, labelled as incontinent, then shipped off to a nursing home," he said. "It's a common chain of events over something preventable and treatable."
Dr O'Reilly said the waiting time for an appointment to assess incontinence was one year and 18 months if surgery was required.
More people suffer from continence problems than from diabetes, according to Yvette Burns, senior physiotherapist at St John's Hospital, Co Sligo and chairwoman of the Irish Continence Interest Group.
Ms Burns said she knew products for continence problems, such as pads, were being widely used, yet people "aren't coming forward" to get more help.
The group will be pushing its case as part of Bladder Awareness Week which starts on May 8th.