By Róise Collins and Emma Ryan
Measures are being put in place to tackle the significant vacancies within disability services in Donegal, the HSE has confirmed.
There are currently 36 full-time vacant positions across Donegal’s three Children’s Disability Network Teams, a meeting of the Regional Health Forum has heard.
Dermot Monaghan, Chief Officer, Community Healthcare Organisation said a number of measures are being implemented to tackle recruitment in what he described as a “very challenging environment”.
Mr Monaghan said the HSE cannot continue to do what they are doing without yielding the same results.
They are now keen to “think outside the box” and are currently looking at a number of localised initiatives.
The measures include organising local job fairs and targeting healthcare staff who have emigrated.
“It’s not easy but we are hoping to have some traction in the next three to four months in terms of our key areas, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy,” he said.
“We are also identifying that the way we have tried to recruit those posts in the past hasn’t been successful and we now need to go for CDNT specific campaigns that identify people in Northern Ireland, UK, Australia and New Zealand to try to get them back,” Mr Monaghan said.
Cllr Gerry Crawford welcomed the measures being taken but stressed that there are children across the county who urgently require these services.
“While we wait for all of the worthy initiatives, children do not have access to the services that they require,” he said in response to Mr Monaghan.
Cllr Albert Doherty echoed the same concerns.
In response Mr Monaghan explained how the three CDNTs in Donegal area have each put in place a contingency plan to manage the impact of the current vacancies across their services ensuring a continuation of services.
This includes speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy caseloads being prioritised. Agency staff are being employed and assessments are being outsourced where appropriate.
The issue was also raised at last week’s meeting of Donegal County Council with Cllr Albert Doherty saying the number of vacancies are unacceptable.
He submitted a motion calling on the council to write to Minister Anne Rabbitte and ask her to initiate an immediate review of PDS delivery in Donegal.
The motion said the letter should note the failure to fill key positions in the local CDNT service and include seeking and delivering pathways to enable trained therapists find employment in HSE services.
Cllr Gerry McMonagle seconded the motion and said the situation is not fair on parents or the children impacted. He questioned why is it so difficult to get the vacancies filled.
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