Elderly people in Cork and Kerry wait up to seven months for home support

Home support hours are given to mainly elderly people who may wish to live at home rather than in a nursing home but need help. File picture: Pexels

Some elderly people in Cork and Kerry have been waiting over seven months for home support but the HSE insists the budget is not frozen, with new referrals for the scheme still being accepted.

Age Action warned there is “a major issue” with workforce planning across Ireland, with a high proportion of carers close to retirement themselves. Home support hours are given to mainly elderly people who may wish to live at home rather than in a nursing home but need help.

HSE Cork Kerry Community Healthcare said 1,648 people were waiting for a carer or additional hours by the end of August. This included people “awaiting part/new service for a period of up to 30 weeks".

A spokeswoman said delays are “predominantly down to lack of carer availability in the area” and that over 7,000 people are supported. She rejected fears the service is not taking new clients, however, and said lists are reviewed for urgent cases. 

“Cork Kerry Community Healthcare has not been given any instruction that the home support budget has been frozen to new referrals for the remainder of the year,” she said. She added they have “not instructed any of our private home support providers to reduce time spent with clients.” 

They hired an extra 92 home support workers this year but lost 93 to retirement. A further 36 resigned for personal reasons. It has proved difficult to recruit into these jobs since the pandemic, she said. 

They have also seen people leave for non-healthcare jobs. Salaries range from €32,473 to €41,488 with part-time work available. Travel expenses and travel time between clients is paid.

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Nationally, the HSE said 5,986 people were on carer waiting lists up to August 31. No one was waiting for funding with all delays linked to staff shortages. Over 54,000 people are supported by carers now, a 4.2% increase on last year. 

Celine Clarke, Age Action advocacy said the situation in Cork/Kerry is echoed elsewhere. “The major issue in all of this is the workforce planning, unfortunately,” she said. "There are two problems. The workforce was deeply affected during covid, people made different employment choices."

The age of the workforce is also a concern, she said, noting HSE data shows 42% of homecare workers are aged 60 or older. “There are significant challenges there in terms of planning,” she said. 

“Now this is an issue across the EU where 38% of the long-term care workforce are 50 and over. It’s just a feature of the work, and the majority of those will be women.” 

We don’t value care, so therefore we don’t value the carer or the cared-for and this is a consistent problem now we see in the delivery of home support with these growing waiting lists.

She also called for progress on plans to introduce State funding for homecare and set standards.  A public consultation was first held on this in 2017.

“The regulation is inadequate or not there,” she said. “It will put the funding model on a statutory basis, so that should support people to get access to timely care.” 

In the Dáil this month, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said draft regulations are at an advanced stage and other work continues on these plans.