Ms Aileen O'Donovan:

It is bananas. We do not even know who our therapists are because they move and change and are not replaced. When we met our occupational therapist she was pregnant. She went on maternity leave and was never seen by anyone. She has come back, after lockdown, and we got a text to say that she would be gone on maternity leave again and there will not be a replacement. Our child will go to secondary school in September 2024 and his clinical nurse specialist, who is his key worker, was not aware of when that was happening. She said she would put him down for a course in September because there might be occupational therapy then. It is just bananas. Unfortunately, there is money haemorrhaging into the system but it is frightening how inappropriately it is being used. That being said, we are very thankful we have services because some areas do not have them. However, the services are not managed effectively. They do not provide value for money and there is no end of money available.