Children on Cork's northside waiting up to seven years for primary care services

Children are waiting as long as seven years to be seen by primary care services in the northside of Cork city, new figures show.

There are 16,944 children and adolescents on waiting list for the services which are aimed at young people with non-complex mental health difficulties and developmental issues, according to data provided to Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide.

The latest figures from the HSE “were only released after repeated follow-up”, said Mr Quaide, the party’s mental health and disability spokesperson. The figures reveal long waiting times for psychology, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy (SLT) and physiotherapy services.

Longest

The longest wait-time in Ireland for physiotherapy is in North Lee, Cork, at 369 weeks. South Lee has a longest wait time of 196, while in North Cork it is 108 weeks and in West Cork it is 63 weeks.

In psychology, all four areas of Cork have people waiting longer than three years — the longest wait time is 262 weeks in South Lee, 252 in North Lee, 189 in West Cork and 181 in North Cork.

In the South West, which comprises Cork and Kerry, there are 2,570 people waiting longer than two years for a psychology appointment.

In occupational therapy, the longest wait times are 161 weeks in North Cork, 162 weeks in North Lee, 137 in South Lee and 99 in West Cork, while in SLT the longest wait times are 63 weeks in North Lee, 56 in North Cork, 20 in South Lee and 18 in West Cork.

Latest waiting list data shows that as of May 2025, there are 5,820 children waiting for psychology treatment, as well as 4,196 waiting for occupational therapy and 1,300 waiting for physiotherapy assessments.

In SLT 5,628 Cork children are waiting for either an assessment, initial or further therapy. In total there are 6,741 children waiting for assessments or treatment in North Lee, 5,912 in South Lee, 2,926 in North Cork and 1,365 in West Cork. 

Out of control

Mr Quaide told The Echo: “Waiting lists for child and adolescent primary care in Cork across disciplines are so out of control that the services may as well not exist for families in many cases. He also said that “staff morale is on the floor”, and that a difficulty recruiting is causing waiting lists to rise.

A HSE spokesperson said: “The HSE is committed to delivering efficient high-quality services to all eligible service users. In 2024, there were over 1.3 million patients seen by HSE Primary Care Therapy services.

“Each health region is focused on improving access to care in order to reduce waiting times for patients in the context of resources available.”