The treatment of stroke patients is hampered by the demand for beds and by too few neurologists, according to a report on medical rehabilitation. Ireland has only 10 neurologists at consultant and senior registrar level, compared with 480 in Holland and 170 in the UK, says the report.
It was produced by the National Rehabilitation Board's advisory committee on medical rehabilitation, chaired by Prof Barry Bresnihan. It was recently presented to the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Cowen.
In other European countries the care of stroke patients is conducted under the direction of neurologists, but Ireland has too few neurologists to allow this to happen, it says.
And there is no indication that this will change in the short or medium term.
The demand for beds affects the amount of time a stroke patient can spend in hospital, "when the physician is under pressure to free the occupied bed for another patient with a fresh acute medical problem".
"In those areas where out-patient and community rehabilitation services remain limited the patient may nevertheless be discharged after a few weeks' in-patient rehabilitation," it adds.
The report is critical of the overall provision for medical rehabilitation in Ireland for a range of injuries and diseases.
"Access to services is erratic and in some areas virtually non-existent," says Prof Bresnihan. "The provision of rehabilitation to many within 18 and 65 years of age with disability is often grossly inadequate both at the hospital and community levels."
The end-result of such poor provision, he says, is that many people suffering from injury and disease will never fully recover.
There is relatively little teaching of the principles of rehabilitation in Irish universities and this should be redressed urgently, the report says.
There should also be a far greater presence in hospitals of consultants who are experts at rehabilitating patients.