Ireland "neglecting its duty of care" to brain injury survivors
18 Jul 2011
It is said that a society can be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable members. The Medical Independent (www.medicalindependent.ie) reports that when it comes to providing appropriate rehabilitation services, Ireland is neglecting its duty of care.
According to the report, by June Shannon:
"Ireland currently has the lowest number of physical and rehabilitation specialists in Europe. While the European average is approximately 3.3 consultants per 100,000 population, Ireland has languished at the bottom of the table for quite some time with just 0.17 per 100,000 citizens. Croatia has the highest number of specialists in the field in Europe, followed by Latvia and the Czech Republic.
Our nearest neighbours the UK, against which Ireland's heath service is regularly pitted, has the second worst ratio of rehab consultants to population in Europe."
Headway Chief Executive, Kieran Loughran is quoted in the article about the lack of rehabilitation services and the difficulty of accessing those services once someone has been discharged from hospital after the initial stages of an injury.
"If you are in hospital, you are in the system. When you leave hospital you are out of the system."
Read the Report from the Medical Independent here.
Table from the report showing the number of rehabilitation consultants per 100,000 population in European countries:
