HSE acceptance of delay in Cork CAMHS ‘is disturbing’
CORK North West TD Michael Moynihan has said that he is disturbed by the HSE’s apparent acceptance of delays in the delivery of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in the Cork area.
Deputy Moynihan was commenting after receiving a parliamentary reply from the HSE in response to questions he asked about the unacceptable delays in young Cork people accessing mental health services.
“The HSE have accepted that due to a shortage of consultant level doctors across a number of teams ‘ there have been and will be unacceptable delays,” he said.
“While they acknowledge the ‘difficulties faced by children, adolescents and their families in the absence of a fully staffed CAMHS service’, I don’t get the sense, based on the reply, that they have a plan to address these shortages and the delays.
“I have no doubt that the doctors and other clinicians who are currently are doing their level best to deliver the services, but they need the support of additional staff members to deal with the backlogs and ensure that any child or adolescent who needs to access a mental health service can do so in a timely manner.
“There is clearly an issue with both the recruitment and retention of staff for the CAMHS service in Cork. The HSE need to up their game and find creative ways of attracting staff to fill the gaps in the local service, otherwise these delays will continue and service users will be left waiting,” concluded Moynihan.
The HSE have responded to these remarks by acknowledging more needs to be done, stating that the referral rate in Cork and Kerry in recent years has been ‘significantly higher than the increase in the referral rate nationally’.
They added that while these numbers needed to be improved upon, the Cork and Kerry CHO area received funding for 13 new posts toward the end of 2016.
They added that 85% of all people were on a waiting list for no more than four months in the county and that no child has been waiting more than 12 months for therapy.
The HSE also added that they have been actively trying to recruit consultants across Europe, but said that this was “extremely difficult as there is a shortage of consultants across Europe.”
They acknowledged that the delays experienced by those in the county was unacceptable and that they are striving to shorten waiting lists.
‘We recognise that due to the lack of medical cover, there have been and will be, at times, unacceptable delays and we acknowledge the difficulties face by children, adolescents and their families in the absence of a fully staffed CAMHS service.
‘Clinicans are working tirelessly to ensure the service is as responsive as possible within the available staffing resources and all efforts are being made to support the teams during this time of consultant vacancies,” they added.