Healthcare professionals raise 'significant concerns' over new HSE policies on waiting times

Psychologists and therapists are warning that new procedures designed to cut waiting lists could result in the wrong diagnosis being issued.  Picture: PA

The HSE has clarified that areas with the lengthiest backlog of assessment of need cases will have until next June to clear them, even as psychologists and therapists prepare to tell an Oireachtas Committee that new procedures aimed at tackling waiting lists may result in some children getting the wrong diagnosis.

Mark Smyth, the President of the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI), will deliver a statement on behalf of the PSI, the Association of Occupational Therapists in Ireland (AOTI) and the Irish Association of Speech & Language Therapists (IASLT) to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration, warning that there are "significant concerns" over the HSE's new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) which aims to cut waiting times.

Assessment of Need (AON) is supposed to allow children to be diagnosed and then apply for resources, all within a limited, statutory timeframe. However, as of the end of last September, 5,873 applications were overdue. Last January, the HSE implemented a new Standard Operating Procedure, despite the PSI, AOTI and IASLT voicing concerns about it as far back as 2018 and arguing it is not in the best interests of children.

Mr Smyth will tell the committee that the SOP is "neither evidence-based nor based on good practice".

"It remains our considered opinion that the changes to clinical practice described within the SOP will in many cases prove detrimental to children and their families. Our members are also concerned that compliance with the SOP could lead to them being in breach of their professional body and CORU [regulator] codes of conduct and ethics."

The groups will raise various concerns about the 90-minute SOP and the Preliminary Team Assessment (PTA) model embedded within it, including the risk of a child facing lengthier wait times for proper intervention, or that a child may incorrectly be deemed not to have a disability.

In August, an extra €7.8m was allocated to the HSE to tackle the thousands of overdue assessments. Internal memos show that at that stage the funding was provided on the understanding that all AONs overdue at the end of June would be completed by the end of this year — raising fears that the extra money might be lost as efforts to fix the backlog time out.

However, a spokesperson for the HSE said: "Funding to address the backlog of overdue assessments was secured in August 2020 at which time each Community Healthcare Organisation developed plans to address their backlogs that included overtime initiatives, recruitment of additional staff and procurement of private assessments.

"CHO areas with lower numbers of overdue AONs have projected completion dates of December 2020. Other areas will continue to address the backlog in early 2021 with an overall target date of May 31, 2021 for project completion."