Home care cuts sees ‘off-loading of patients into hospitals’

The clinical director of University Hospital Waterford has accused the community arm of the HSE of “off-loading” care of patients on to acute hospitals by clamping down on the number of home care packages available.

Dr Mark Doyle, who is president of the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine, said a situation had arisen in the south east whereby no new home care packages would be made available to patients this year due to financial constraints. He said they only became aware of this when difficulties arose trying to secure home care packages for patients in the Wexford area.

“We weren’t even told that it was happening. We discovered when we were trying to get patients into rehab beds in Wexford.