Easier access to consultants and an automatic entitlement to a medical card should be standard in the care of neurological patients with progressive disabling conditions, a review of the area by concerned charities has urged.
Other recommendations include the communication of diagnoses by specialists rather than junior doctors; referral upon diagnosis to relevant patient support groups; and early follow-up appointments after initial diagnosis.
These and other proposals are contained in the Neurological Alliance Standards of Care document, the result of a year-long study by charities including the Irish Brain Research Foundation, the Motor Neurone Disease Association, and Brainwave, the Irish Epilepsy Association.
The document, which was unveiled in Dublin yesterday, allows neurological charities "to speak with one voice" in highlighting the deficiencies of the current system and pointing the way forward, according to the secretary of the alliance, Ms Eithne Frost.
Ireland has some 500,000 people with neurological conditions, those attending the event heard, with chronic and often severely disabling illness exacerbated in many cases by financial hardship.
Services are poorly organised and difficult to access, hospital and community care services are not co-ordinated, and there is a shortage of trained personnel, the attendance was told.
The alliance document is the first in a series, with two further reviews planned, one on standards of care for people with neurological conditions not involving physical disability (e.g. epilepsy and migraine) and another on conditions featuring "cognitive decline" (e.g. Alzheimer's).