RECENT POLITICAL and media pressure on St Vincent's Hospital to divert resources to cystic fibrosis (CF) has led to the near doubling to 24 months of waiting times for assessment of patients with serious sleep disorders, a conference in Dublin has heard.
While understanding and sympathising with the wish to see extra resources devoted to CF, the Sleep Apnoea Trust's secretary, Mr Dan Smyth, told delegates to the patient group's annual conference in Croke Park that it was not acceptable that resources should be diverted in this way from a serious condition that is life shortening and which itself is under-resourced. The group will be meeting the hospital soon to make its concerns known.
Sleep apnoea, associated most with very heavy snoring, is a condition in which the supply of air to the brain is repeatedly cut off during sleep, resulting in continuously broken sleep and daytime exhaustion. It affects 50,000-100,000 people in Ireland, although such figures are almost certainly a substantial underestimation, according to Prof Walter McNicholas, a specialist in sleep disorders.
He said only one in 20 sufferers was correctly diagnosed with the condition which is the most widespread breathing ailment after asthma.
He welcomed what he said was the important publication last month of a report by the British National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) on sleep apnoea.
Nice advises the NHS on clinical best practice and its report emphasised strongly the need for specialist assessment and treatment of sufferers and the efficacy of machines that maintain continuous pressure on airways (CPAP) in patients during sleep.
Prof McNicholas said it was important the Health Service Executive (HSE) would act on the report's findings.
The Sleep Apnoea Trust's website is www.isat.ie