HSE promises action as 6,058 children await assessment

The HSE has said it is taking extra measures to tackle the backlog of Assessments of Need after latest figures showed another 500 children had been added to the waiting list. File picture. 

The HSE has said it is taking extra measures to tackle the backlog of Assessments of Need after the latest figures showed another 500 children had been added to the waiting list.

Just weeks ago the Irish Examiner reported that 5,533 assessments of need were overdue, but data to the end of September show that the backlog of cases had grown to 6,058. Of those, the HSE said just 185 were overdue for completion because of exceptional circumstances.

The screening assessment is to provide information on the health needs of children, but the system has been beset by delays in recent years.

In a response to a parliamentary question by Deputy Michael Moynihan, the recently-appointed Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters, Dr Cathal Morgan, Head of Operations of HSE Disability Services, Community Operations, said the HSE was "acutely conscious" of how the delays impact on children and their families.

Dr Morgan referred to the recently-implemented Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the Assessment of Need and said: "These changes are intended to alleviate the current situation where children in some parts of the country may wait a number of years before they can access an assessment. During this waiting period, they often have little or no access to intervention or support. It is intended that the changes in the SOP, particularly the new preliminary assessment, will facilitate children with disabilities to access assessment in a timelier fashion."

Michael Moynihan, Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters. Picture: Tony O'Connell.

He also referred to the recent allocation of €7.8m to address overdue AON and said other measures to tackle the backlog would include the restoration of relevant clinicians to children’s disability services, overtime at weekends and in the evenings, the use of private assessments and recruitment fo additional staff on short-term contracts.

A total of 91 Children’s Disability Network teams are also to begin work.

However, as with AON, therapies needed by children also have lengthy waiting lists. Updated information provided to Deputy Moynihan also shows 19,864 people waiting for an initial assessment for speech and language therapy, including 527 waiting more than two years.

There were 16,378 children on the waiting list for further speech and language therapy, of which more than 4,000 were waiting more than a year.

For physiotherapy, 46,440 people were awaiting an assessment at the end of September, including more than 3,000 children who have been waiting for more than two years. Areas particularly badly impacted include Waterford, Laois, Offaly and South Tipperary.

The number of patients awaiting a first-time assessment for Occupational Therapy at the end September was 34,658, including 9,762 children aged between five and 18 witing more than two years. In that cohort those in CHO4, which includes Cork and Kerry, were worst affected, and CHO4 also had the second highest number of people overall on this waiting list with 5,830, just behind the 5,864 waiting in CHO 8 which covers much of the midlands.

In a response to Deputy Moynihan, Siobhán McArdle, Head of Operations: Primary Care Community Operations, said Covid-19 had presented "significant challenges" and said the HSE now had "a formal programme of work under the governance of the Chief Clinical Officer and Chief Operations Officer" to tackle those issues.

"The focus is to plan the recommencement of the delivery of Non-Covid Services to address ongoing clinical demands while maintaining capacity for Covid-19 rapid response," she said.