'Capacity issue' at HSE supply depot means walking aids are being left outside

A line of walking aids left outside a HSE storage facility in Ardcavan, Wexford. Picture: Deirdre Taaffe

The HSE has no room to store walking aids and other equipment indoors due to the volume of them being returned to a depot in Wexford, the health service has said.

The admission comes after a picture emerged on social media showing dozens of wheelchairs and walking frames outside the depot in Ardcavan.

Deirdre Taaffe, from Wexford, says the equipment, which she estimates included 20 adult and child wheelchairs, appeared to have been stored outdoors for "weeks".

She said she only discovered the equipment when she went to the depot on Tuesday afternoon, to return her son Charlie’s wheelchair.

The 9-year-old had suffered a sports injury to his right leg and had needed a wheelchair and then crutches.

She initially put a photo of what she saw on her Facebook account. It was then shared by the Scoliosis Advocacy Network and has now been seen more than 24,000 times.

It has prompted a raft of comments from mothers who are struggling to get walking aids for their children.

One woman said that she too had brought a wheelchair back to the depot and she claimed that she had been told that staff had nowhere to store equipment.

A HSE spokesperson said: “There is a capacity issue within the current building to intake the high volume of returned appliances from the community.

“The HSE is examining the viability of extending capacity space at the Ardcavan location to ensure that returned appliances are stored appropriately whilst awaiting collection.” 

The Ardcavan depot is a HSE central logistics site for the Wexford area. It procures all equipment and non-medicinal stock supplies for all HSE services within Wexford.

The HSE spokesperson added: “Equipment is collected from the Ardcavan site on a fortnightly basis by the HSE and supplemented with additional collections by contracted providers.

“Equipment is taken for functional assessment, deep cleaning, subject to relevant manufacturers recommendations and guidance.”