‘Extremely concerning’: Almost 700 Cork people on home support waiting list

ALMOST 700 people are on the waiting list for new home support services in Cork, while a further 400 are awaiting additional or partial services.

Information obtained from Cork Kerry Community Healthcare (CKCH) revealed the number of people on the waiting lists in Cork.

A CKCH spokesperson said: “The home support waiting list in Cork is made up of both clients who are awaiting a new service and who currently are not in receipt of any service, and clients who are awaiting additional hours/part of the originally prescribed service, who are receiving some home support.

“The majority of clients who are prescribed home support have a service commence almost immediately. However, on occasion, part of the prescribed service may not be put in place — this would be predominantly down to a lack of carer availability in the area. Six hundred and ninety-six clients in Cork are awaiting allocation of a new home support service and 400 clients are on the waitlist for an additional/partial service.

“Waiting lists are constantly being validated, with priority given to those being discharged from hospital.”

The spokesperson said CKCH endeavours to deliver a home support service to as many clients as possible “in the face of a challenging employment environment, an increasing demand for home support, competition with the private and voluntary sectors in accessing the same skilled workforce and the recent pause on recruitment”.

“Staff continue to be recruited to approved health care assistant home support posts which have been sanctioned for filling. Since the introduction of the current recruitment pause, derogation has been sought and granted for a total of 49 health care assistant staff.

“There is a health care assistant home support panel in place in both Cork and Kerry for the purpose of recruitment, and approved posts are being offered on a continuous basis.”

Speaking to , Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould described the waiting list figures as “extremely concerning”.

“They highlight once again the serious issues with home support in this state,” he said.

“Almost 1,100 vulnerable people in Cork have been left without sufficient home help care. For nearly 700 of these, they are receiving no care at all. The burden for this often falls on families who do not have the capacity to provide care to their loved ones. For those without family support, the situation borders on dangerous.

“I regularly speak to people whose parents or loved ones have been hospitalised while waiting for home care to be allocated. That is because leaving people without basic care in the community leaves them at risk. These are vulnerable people. They are elderly people stuck in bed, unable to get washed and sometimes going days without visitors.

“It is time for this Government to get real about providing community care.”