‘People with disabilities not given a choice’ - watchdog

People with a disability who insisted on having a say about their care were threatened with having equipment or supports removed by the Health Service Executive (HSE), a watchdog has said.

Leith Gath, the HSE’s confidential recipient, claimed that the health service often adopted a medical approach to the provision of services for people with a disability when a model of social care was needed which would allow for greater inclusiveness in decision-making.

She said such an issue was brought to her attention many times last year.

“In some instances, [people] are apparently being forced to use their supports or equipment as the HSE sees fit,” said Ms Gath.

In her latest annual report, she expressed concern that people with disabilities were not being allowed a choice in their lives because the HSE deemed it “risky or not necessary”.

“The concerns I have seen on this are coming from adults with physical and/or sensory disabilities who are capable of making their own decisions,” said Ms Gath.

These people have told me of feeling that there has been an unreasonable effort to control them, and when they have not complied, some people have apparently been threatened that use of equipment or support hours will be either reduced or withdrawn.

Ms Gath said another major issues was the lack of communication between the HSE and her office which impacted on her ability to assist people who has raised concerns.

In only 53% of complaints last year, the HSE responded to cases notified by the Confidential Recipient within 15 days as required.

The report shows 206 formal complaints or concerns were recorded last year. – an increase of 10 on 2017 figures. Almost 70% of cases related to issues with disability services.

Ms Gath said concerns notified to her office generally fitted into two broad categories — care and safeguarding.She said a recurring theme among 130 cases relating to care issues last year were funding limits for services and difficulties faced by families accessing respite.Ms Gath claimed communications at times between families and the HSE remained “problematic”.

Concern about possible abuse, often within families, was one of the main issues raised in 76 safeguarding cases recorded last year.

The Confidential Recipient said she was keen to hear from more people who had a concern about the health services or who simply required more information.

She also welcomed the growing number of healthcare staff who contacted her office and said they could also raise complaints in an anonymous capacity.“While a culture of fear in coming forward is slowly eroding, it is important to give assurance that every concern received by my office is taken seriously,” Ms Gath said.

The report shows complainants were satisfied with the outcome of 104 of 170 cases closed last year, while 14 were not satisfied. Funding constraints applied to five cases, while 25 were anonymous and two were passed to other bodies.

Ms Gath said her office had dealt with almost 750 formal concerns or complaints about healthcare services since it was established in December 2014.