Home help waiting list in Mayo has now reached 245
The HSE has furnished specific data in relation to the roll-out of its home help services in Mayo in response to a series of questions from a local councillor.
Castlebar-based Cllr Michael Kilcoyne sought answers pertaining to the service at last week's meeting of the HSE Regional Health Forum West and was advised that Mayo Home Support delivered 48,458 hours to 1,595 clients during April and that the waiting list for the service amounted to 245 people by the end of the month.
The HSE further revealed that the average home support hours per week per client in Mayo is 6.3 and that allocations range up to a maximum of 17.5 hours, depending on care needs, with potential to increase to 21 hours in exceptional circumstances to support complex care needs.
Integrated Health Manager for Mayo, Mary Warde, added: “We also provide short-term care to facilitate discharge from hospital following post-operative surgery, e.g. total hip replacement, back surgery, etc.”
She added that Home Support does not have a system available to collate the numbers of clients receiving specific care times but noted that such a system has gone to tender nationally and will include a reporting feature to capture such data.
Cllr Kilcoyne said the average home help were week was "very low."
"I thought it would be higher. I also notice there are over 200 people waiting for home help, I think that’s really serious because many of these will end up in nursing homes because some are living on their own or with a person that is not able to assist them. If people have to go into a nursing home it will cost a lot more money than home help so I am disappointed with the number still on the waiting list, which is almost 250 now.”
Cllr Kilcoyne asked HSE management how it proposed to deal with the situation, to which the Regional Executive Officer Tony Canavan replied: “There is no doubt those on the waiting list would benefit from the service if it were available. We are currently exceeding our home help service remit, providing more than we are funded for. It reflects a growing need within the community for sure and it is important we can offer a range of services for older people when they become unwell or go in to hospital and not just home help as you describe it. We will be seeking additional funding for 2026 with the hope to increase the service further.”
Integrated Health Manager Ann Cosgrove added that people can be on a waiting list due to staff recruitment problems and that is not exclusive to Mayo.
Cllr Kilcoyne said more money was needed for the service.
“If you look at the average number of hours a patient gets the cost would be around €200 a week, not much more, but if they had to go into a nursing home we would be paying six times that or at least the taxpayer would, so that is why I absolutely think you should get more money in your budget for home help. The people who do get the service are very grateful for it, they tell me that themselves.”
Mr Canavan agreed, saying: “We recognise it is particularly relevant for those people because they want to remain at home as long as possible”, to which Cllr Kilcoyne commented: “And there is also the fear of God in some of them following the recent nursing homes scandal shown on the television.”
