ALMOST 200 people in Donegal are waiting on home help support, according to figures released by the HSE.
A total of 190 people in the county have been waiting between zero to 26 weeks for the service, with 80 people in east Donegal, 23 in Inishowen and 87 in north Donegal on the list.
The figures were provided to Cllr Gary Doherty, who requested an updated position on community capacity at a recent meeting of the Regional Health Forum West and North West.
“The response indicates that everyone is waiting between zero and 26 weeks, but for me that category is far too broad to provide any kind of meaningful transparencies,” he said.
“Someone waiting one week and someone waiting 26 weeks are both categorised together and I don’t think that’s giving us the full picture of what the waiting list is like for home support in the county.”
He requested a further breakdown as to how many people have been waiting zero to four weeks, four to 12 weeks and 12 to 26 weeks.
Cllr Doherty said this would give a better understanding to the situation.
“The recruitment of healthcare assistants (HCAs) continues to remain a focus of HSE Human Resources (HR) through recruitment campaigns and by working with private providers,” said Dermot Monaghan, Integrated Health Area Manager for Donegal.
“While recruitment of HCAs continues to be a challenge for home support service providers, it remains a service priority for the HSE Donegal Home Support Service.”
