Daughter appeals for pain patches for 99-year-old father
A Waterford woman has called for pain patches to be prescribed once more for her elderly father.
Ann Nolan Walsh has appealed twice for Versatis patches for her father, who turns 100 this year. Each time she was turned down.
Her father, Patrick Nolan, was using the patches and was taken off them in November. He has been living with chronic pain since.
"He finds it very difficult to be able to walk. He always needed help to walk, obviously, but now his legs are going from under him. It's very difficult," she told Liveline on RTÉ Radio 1.
His doctor tried appealing the decision but had "no joy".
She explained that her father is still living at home and both herself and her brother care for him full-time with no help from the HSE.
"It's very hard to get him out of bed, he's in pain getting out of bed where he used not be in pain.
"He's so old. That's the only thing he takes for the bit of pain relief, he has no ailments.
Ann said the patches enabled her father to walk, with help, without his legs going from underneath him from the pain in his back and hip.
He was instead prescribed a cream that Ann said "was like a moisturiser on him."
"It's disgraceful," she said.
Since September, GPs must apply to the HSE’s Medicines Management Programme for approval to prescribe the drug.
Approval was also needed for continued prescribing after three months.
