A Three-year delay in providing hospice care for AIDS sufferers in the Southern Health Board area was yesterday condemned by board members who described protracted negotiations between the board and a local hospice as "shilly-shallying".
According to the Fianna Fail TD for Cork South Central, Mr Batt O'Keeffe, the issue of providing hospice care for AIDS sufferers has been the subject of negotiation between the SHB and Marymount Hospice at St Patrick's Hospital for more than three years.
"I have letters here since 1994 saying discussions are ongoing. Three and a half years later we still don't have hospice care for AIDS sufferers. That's inexcusable. Why can't we establish if Marymount are going to take these patients?"
According to Mr O'Keeffe, Marymount has indicated it is willing to take AIDS patients but needs funding to expand its facilities while the SHB maintains that funding is available.
"Is funding available? We want to know because in the interim people are dying in poor conditions and their families are being traumatised by not being able to get their sons treated locally. This shilly-shallying has gone on too long," he said.
Mr O'Keeffe was supported by an Independent councillor, Mr Con O'Leary, who said it appeared someone somewhere did not want to have anything to do with AIDS patients. "I want to know who's the fellow the buck stops with on this one?" he said.
The SHB chief executive, Mr Sean Hurley, said the AIDS strategy which identified Marymount Hospice as somewhere which could be developed for AIDS sufferers had been drawn up in 1993 and the approach to treating the disease had changed.
New drug treatments were now available while many AIDS sufferers did not want to go into hospice care. It was not just a question of providing beds but of providing an integrated care service, and that was what Marymount wished to do.
The recent appointment of Dr Mary Horgan as SHB infectious diseases consultant was an important step, and she had already identified the need for one or two beds every six months as part of a strategy to care for AIDS sufferers, he said.
The SHB community care programme manager, Mr Paddy Madden, said Marymount already had the beds but it estimated it needed £800,000 to develop its hospice services to allow it care for a wider range of people including AIDS sufferers.
Mr Hurley said he had asked a working party chaired by Dr Horgan to draft a plan for the treatment of HIV/AIDS patients and to liaise with voluntary support groups such as the Cork AIDS Alliance, Southern Gay Group and HIV/AIDS Family Support Group.