HSE apologises as 18,000 children with disabilities wait for first appointment

'[A]ll we want is access to services for children who badly need the services and are entitled to the services,' said Labour TD Seán Sherlock. Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews

The HSE has apologised to families after the number of children with a disability waiting for initial contact to access care rose to 18,000.

Newly-released figures show the number of children waiting for an initial contact with a Children’s Disability Network Team (CDNT) in the nine community healthcare organisation (CHO) areas rose by around 1,500 in September when compared with August.

The most up-to-date figures for September show 8,751 children out of 18,473 have been waiting over 12 months for initial contact.

A HSE breakdown shows the number of children aged between 0-17 waiting on access to care, including:

• 16,179 waiting for initial contact for ophthalmology;
• 14,260 for occupational therapy;
• 13,516 waiting for initial assessment for speech-and-language therapy (SLT);
• 12,505 children who are waiting got initial contact for a psychology appointment;
• 10,135 waiting for audiology;
• 9,631 awaiting further therapy for SLT;
• 7,965 waiting for physiotherapy;
• 7,166 waiting on initial SLT;
• 6,230 waiting for dietetics.

Speaking in the Dáil in recent days, the minister of state for disabilities, Anne Rabbitte, said there is an average vacancy rate of 28% across the 91 CDNTs, which equates to approximately 524 vacancies out of a total allocation of 1,892 staff members.

She said the reconfiguration of CDNTs by the HSE across the country has faced recruitment challenges.

A HSE spokeswoman said in a statement to the Irish Examiner that they “apologise to those families who have had a poor experience in trying to access care and information, and will continue to work to make a difference, make changes, and build a sustainable and better service for children.”

Disabilities minister Anne Rabbitte told the Dáil the HSE faces recruitment challenges with an average of 28% of posts in disability network teams currently vacant. Picture: Moya Nolan

An analysis of each CHO shows Cork and Dublin are the worst-affected counties with a significant number of children waiting on accessing care.

In CHO 4, which covers Cork and Kerry, there are 2,813 children waiting for initial contact for psychology in Cork, with 456 in Kerry.

A total of 5,485 children across the country are waiting over a year for initial contact for occupational therapy.

The figures were provided to Labour TD for Cork East, Seán Sherlock, who said there is no evidence that the CDNT system is working.

He said: “Notwithstanding the bona fides of the minister, what we’re not seeing is the impact of the policy — and the numbers on the waiting list bear that out — and all we want is access to services for children who badly need the services and are entitled to the services.

“Families are going through turmoil because they feel that if their child can’t get timely access to services, then the child falls behind from a developmental point of view.”