HSE denies speech therapy ‘crisis’

THE HSE has flatly denied Fine Gael claims that the country’s speech and language therapy service is in “tatters” with waiting lists reaching a “dangerous high”.

According to Fine Gael, speech and language therapists are being forced to emigrate as they can’t find work here yet there are children waiting up to six months for treatment. Experts agree that early intervention is crucial when tackling a speech and language disorder.

The HSE has said that more basic grades are due to come on stream and that many of the posts will be filled from a panel of basic grade therapists that they advertised for three months ago.

They have said that Ireland has 66% more speech and language therapists now than December 2001 and that with the growth in disability services, a further 250 posts will be created in the next two years.

Meanwhile, an international recruitment campaign has been launched to find senior therapists to fill current gaps.

Fine Gael Dun Laoghaire TD Seán Barrett warned that equitable access to these services “is still nothing but a pipedream”.

“Many graduates will be driven abroad, by the lack of available work in Ireland.

“Meanwhile, the Irish health services are recruiting more experienced speech and language therapists from abroad because of an insistence on setting overly tough criteria for the new positions they have created to address the waiting list crisis,” said Mr Barrett.

In 2002, the Bacon report recommended that the number of speech and language graduates should quadruple to 100 annually.

Specialist courses were set up in NUI Galway, Cork and the University of Limerick to meet demand.

But the first graduates of these courses have found out that the corresponding posts haven’t been put in place.

According to Fine Gael, the country should have 385 therapists nationwide or one for every 10,000 population.