Parents must be wondering where on earth extra funding given to health is being spent
Across Cork and Kerry 5,009 children and teenagers are on waiting lists for public psychology appointments.
The latest summer economic statement, announced on Tuesday, included an additional €1.5bn in funding for the health service for this year.
That followed an overspend in the sector last year. Parents must rightly be wondering where the overspend came from as their child languishes on waiting lists.
Children are facing obstacles to care for everything from teeth to severe disabilities, as covered in this paper over just the last few months.
Doctors say parents also see the billions being spent on the new children’s hospital and ask why their child is still being treated in small unsuitable clinics or waiting for help.
Other parents are rightly asking why essential eyecare reviews are being missed out on in many areas. The delays could have life-long consequences, Fodo Ireland, the association of eyecare providers, has warned.
A plan is being worked on for children aged eight and over to have their annual review done by local optometrists instead of hospitals but in the meantime the wait continues.
Across Cork and Kerry 5,009 children and teenagers are on waiting lists for public psychology appointments.
They could be children who lost a parent or are struggling with exam stress so they need help early for it to be successful.
The specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) also continues to struggle despite pledges of support following a crisis in Kerry services.
While referrals are triaged and urgent cases seen, waits for children with suspected ADHD grow, despite, for example, a new clinic set up in Cork.
Jigsaw, the national youth mental health charity, has seen families turn to it instead and has had to change how it offers therapy to keep waiting times down.
It now offer a shorter, more intensive, course as an option if the young person is interested.
In dentistry, frustrated parents have spoken of opting for private care if they can afford it.
More than 100,000 children missed out on school screening dental appointments last year, the Irish Dental Association said.
Dr Catherine Gallagher shared shocking details of having to extract up to 20 teeth from toddlers due to decay at the specialist service in Cork University Dental School and Hospital.
In her experience, parents have not been told how to safely feed children in a society leaning on sugary foods as normal.
Public health nurses are often the first source of information on health for new parents, but there is a shortfall of more than 600 in this workforce alone, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
These obstacles are magnified for families who cannot afford private healthcare, the Children’s Rights Alliance has warned.
It called for a dedicated public health nurse service for children, as a first step to bridging that gap.
We could fill this page with obstacles facing parents of children with disabilities.
Health minister Stephen Donnelly said just last week a dedicated fund of €19m given to Children’s Health Ireland for children with scoliosis and spina bifida was spent “far more broadly” than that.
Worried parents and advocacy groups had previously warned him and a HSE audit team about this because they could see changes promised in 2022 were not happening.
We learned on Tuesday spiralling costs of the new children’s hospital will have “a significant impact” on other projects in the HSE’s capital plan for 2024.
The approved cost is now €2.2bn, the Cabinet heard in February.
Meanwhile, paediatric consultants are already raising concerns in private that the new hospital will not give them additional beds.
They point to children on trolleys now as a worrying sign of high demand.
Outside of that flashpoint, Inclusion Ireland has identified children with intellectual disabilities “falling through the cracks” in the health system.
A survey it did of more than 1,000 families found more than half were not able to access any services at all.
The expansion of free GP care to cover all children under eight recently has lifted many barriers and been widely welcomed.
Despite the delays, people working in children’s health say they are working beyond capacity.
One parent described staff in their local unit as “flat to the mat”.
However it must be hard for parents to be tolerant of delays when it is their child whose eyesight is damaged, whose spine is curving, whose teeth are decaying, whose mental health is shattered.
The budget for next year needs to somehow accommodate what could be a €2bn overspend in health, according to some estimates, but parents could fairly ask where on earth is that money being spent?
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