The General Election is taking place on Friday 29th November.
As the candidates and canvassers are knocking at your door, we encourage you to talk to them about early-onset Parkinson’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease. We will not change the course of the election based on a 30 second doorstep chat, however, we can hopefully raise awareness and maybe identify people who might help us in future. Please be courteous to canvassers and candidates.
We need to enforce neurological services and healthcare as a priority!
- 18,000 in Ireland are diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, with research stating that this number could double by 2040.
- 10% of this number are people diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s Disease – Currently 2,000 people and increasing.
- 860,000 people living with a neurological condition in Ireland.
Asks from Candidates:
- Funding for additional Parkinson’s Specialty Nurse and Consultant Neurological posts have been announced in the recent budget, however, most of these posts are yet to be filled. We ask that posts across the multidisciplinary team are filled within 100 days of the new Dáil, and a retention plan is put in place to ensure these posts remain filled.
- Development of a 10-year strategy plan for Parkinson’s services
- Including the funding of €2.1 million for advanced equipment for the delivery of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery in Mater and Beaumont.
- Commitment for the Delivery of Slaintecare and Use of Digital Records System
- Delivery of multidisciplinary team including Parkinson’s Specialty Nurses, physiotherapists, nutritionists, speech therapists, and mental health services
- Implementation of Digital Records
- Delivery of European Disabled Pass
- Access to free GP visits, free prescriptions, streamlined benefits application
- ‘Forgotten age group of 18 – 60 years’: too old for child health services, too young for geriatric health.
