The vast majority of people with serious neurological conditions are not getting the rehabilitation service they need, according to a new survey.

The study of people living with the effects of conditions such as brain injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and motor neurone disease showed that 71% couldn't access any neuropsychology services at all, whilst for 68% physiotherapy and speech and language therapy were either inadequate or not available.

The study was carried out by the Neurological Alliance of Ireland (NAI), the umbrella organisation for the country's neurological sector.

The survey also found that:

· 80% couldn't access adequate residential or day services

· 78% could not get proper counselling services

· More than half had no access at all to training or employment support

· Over three-quarters couldn't get enough information or advice on how to access services or what their benefit entitlements were.

· 76% couldn't access adequate occupational therapy services

The publication of the survey coincided with the launch in Dublin's Mansion House of the NAI's Neurorehabilitation Manifesto which calls for the urgent implementation of Government plans to develop services nationally and to protect voluntary providers of vital neurological services from further funding cuts.

NAI chairman Chris Macey said that although it is estimated that around 150,000 out of some 700,000 people living with neurological conditions in Ireland require ongoing rehabilitation, services across large areas of the country are fragmented, patchy, or non-existent.

"This study highlights the scandalous absence of services for people whose lives have been saved, but whose quality of life is being virtually ignored after they leave hospital."

"Being in a car crash, having a stroke, or being diagnosed with MS can have a devastating impact both physically and psychologically. Our health service can't just exist to patch patients up and then wash its hands of them. We have to help people get back as much of their lives as possible after they are struck by neurological conditions," Chris Macey said.

The biggest deficits recorded in the survey were in neuropsychology services, which each year are required by around 50,000 people with neurological conditions nationwide.

However, the NAI says just 20 neuropsychologists are currently in post for the entire country when the number required is around three times that.

Principal clinical neuropsychologist at Beaumont Hospital, Dr Niall Pender, said that neurological patients missing out on psychological treatment "are suffering unnecessarily and this will have a serious impact on their functional ability, employment possibilities and education".

NAI Development Manager Mags Rogers said six years of HSE cuts to funded not for profit disability organisations continue to have a disproportionate impact on people with neurological conditions.

"Ireland relies on these not for profit groups to provide specialised neurological care and rehabilitation. We just don't have the framework of State services that other countries take for granted and these organisations have stepped in to meet the huge unmet need."