Elderly waiting on list for home care up by 1,000

THE list of older people waiting for HSE home care support has risen to 6,458 – up from 5,418 a year ago.

Galway, Roscommon and Mayo have the biggest waiting list at 1,482.

The figures, obtained by Fianna Fáil spokesman on health Stephen Donnelly, show that from January to March, the HSE missed its target for home support hours by around 40,000 – or around 1pc.

“The west and north-west seem to have missed the target quite badly, coming in more than 100,000 hours under,” he said. “The HSE has now amalgamated home help and home care packages under the one umbrella of home support.

“While this may be administratively simpler, in the sense of there being just one application process, there are significant differences between home help and home care packages.

“The former, for example, does not include any medical care.”