Child with disability spent 368 days in hospital when they didn't need to

Dr Niall Muldoon said a child’s right to grow up within their family is protected by the Constitution. Picture: Maxwells.

Parents of children with complex disabilities are being left with no option but to leave their children in hospitals, residential centres and special schools for weeks and even months because they can’t get the supports and services they need to care for them at home.

That is according to a damning new report, 'Nowhere to Turn'  by the Office of the Ombudsman for Children. It also slams the Health Service Executive for not acting on recommendations made almost three years ago in the case of a young boy, known only as Jack, who had to stay in hospital for two years longer than was medically required.