Health Boards
A 30k photo-therapy machine paid for by voluntary fund-raising to treat people with psoriasis is laying dormant in Ireland.
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A €30k phototherapy machine, paid for by voluntary fundraising efforts, was installed in 2010 in Bantry hospital, but has not been used to treat psoriasis since last August. Now people in West Cork, for whom photo-therapy is recommended to treat psoriasis, must travel over 160km a couple of times a week to avail of a few minutes of therapy at Cork University Hospital.
The €30,000 phototherapy machine was paid for by the voluntary fundraising efforts of the Friends of Bantry General Hospital Ltd. It was installed in 2010, but has not been used since August.
Friends’ spokesman Robert Fennell said they were “disgusted” the equipment was lying idle.
“We raised money to buy the equipment for people who are already paying their taxes,” he said. “The State should be providing the service, but it is not. We fundraised so that phototherapy could be delivered locally and now that isn’t happening.”
The HSE blamed the unavailability of the Bantry service on staff shortages. It said the standards for the delivery of phototherapy changed in 2012, and the revised standards advised “that to ensure a safe dose was delivered, an additional staff member was required”.
“In August 2013, due to the limited number of staff available, the service had to be suspended.”
A similar situation exists at Beaumont in Dublin, where a phototherapy service was “temporarily suspended” in November 2012 due to staff losses, but has yet to be reinstated.
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