No home help until someone else on the list dies
People in Galway, who need home-help, are forced to wait for someone to die before they are allocated hours under the scheme, it has been claimed.
Galway County Councillor Mary Hoade (FF) said she is very concerned that people in the county who need home-help hours are not getting them because home-help hours are not being distributed.
Referencing the case of a 90-year-old woman who is on a waiting list for home help, Cllr Hoade said: “People have to wait for somebody to die before you can get home help. I have a concern that people can’t get home help; there are no home help hours available.”
She highlighted her concerns about home help not being administered in Galway at the latest HSE West Regional Health Forum.
The meeting heard how an overspend in home-help earlier in the year has resulted in a shortage of home help hours now.
“We are continuing to allocate home help hours on a prioritisation basis as the financial challenge still exists,” said Tony Canavan, Chief Officer with Saolta.
“All new applications are assessed and prioritised by a multi-disciplinary decision making forum. Those with the highest need and categorised as priority one (highest need) are awarded a service in line with their assessed need. Those with a priority two rating, while determined to require a service, are placed on a waiting list and are processed as hours become available from existing clients,” he added.
Cllr Hoade said she had concerns about the prioritisation – some people that have been categorised as priority two are in fact priority one and badly need home help hours.
Meanwhile, Saolta has confirmed that Galway University Hospitals is receiving six additional home care packages every week from October 1 to the end of February 2017.
The packages, worth €300, were okayed by the Minister for Health Simon Harris, to support the Winter Plan. Anyone who is granted a home care package between those five months will continue to be supported after February 2017.
The additional packages are targeted at reducing the numbers of delayed discharges in University Hospital Galway.
Cllr Hoade said it was her understanding that between 30 and 40 patients at UHG this week are well enough to be discharged back into the community but they haven’t ben because a lack of home care packages.
Bernard Gloster of Saolta said the number of delayed discharges was actually about 20, and not all of those were related to a lack of home care packages.
“There are complex delayed discharges that are not related to home care packages – it is not necessarily down to home care or home help,” said Mr Gloster.
Cllr Hoade welcomed that the number of delayed discharges had fallen.