HSE promise on care places ‘won’t happen’

A PROMISE of more than 1,000 new residential care places for the intellectually disabled over the next four years cannot be met because of inaccurate costings by the Health Service Executive (HSE), disability groups have claimed.

Yesterday the HSE announced it would fund 255 extra residential places each year up to 2009 for both the intellectually disabled and those with autism.

However, the National Parents and Siblings Alliance (NPSA), an umbrella group for 52 disability bodies, said they did not believe the HSE could deliver.

NPSA director Séamus Greene said: “It won’t happen. To start with, when they costed the 255 extra places, they costed them at around €70,000 each. The service providers cost each additional new place at €106,000 each. This means the new places will be closer to 180 than 255.

“Also, they will allow 30% of the funding to enhance old places - which will bring the number of new places down to around 120. The HSE knows this.

“Moreover, we extrapolated the figures on our waiting lists to show it will be 2020 before present lists are cleared, without allowing for any new people coming on to the list.

“Putting it simply, we’re not impressed.”

In addition to funding extra residential places, the HSE has pledged to fund an additional 85 respite places annually over the next four years and 535 additional day places. Mr Greene said it was hard to gauge progress made in alleviating pressure on daycare because more parents were seeking to place intellectually disabled or autistic children in mainstream education.

He said while the €74 million earmarked for intellectual, physical and sensory disabilities was “not going to solve the problem”, it was “better than nothing”.

Yesterday, a spokesperson for the HSE said its newly established Strategic Planning and Reform Implementation Steering Group (SPRI), would ensure funding reaches its target.

The HSE has also set aside €2m to fund the extra staff needed to transfer 600 persons with disability or autism from psychiatric hospitals to more appropriate placements. Services for those with physical or sensory disability are promised 80 additional residential places annually and 250,000 extra hours of home support have been pledged.

The HSE has earmarked €74m to fund a range of health and social service projects specifically for the disability sector.