Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Helen McEntee, for coming to the House to answer my issue.

In an ideal world most of us would like to think that when the time comes, we would have the means to care for ageing family members who, if given the choice, would prefer to remain in their own home rather than be placed in a hospital or nursing home. There is a crisis in the provision of home care packages across the country. Hours and packages have been cruelly cut for those in society who are most vulnerable. I refer to my constituency, Roscommon-Galway, where I hear about this problem in every clinic. Rather than knock the Government, I will provide the Minister of State with some examples and I am sure she will see exactly from where I am coming.

I was approached recently by a family in my constituency clinic. They are caring at home for their mother who is terminally ill with cancer. They asked for more hours as her condition had worsened. We asked for a review of the case to gain more hours to help the family. When the review took place, despite desperately needing the hours already allocated, the family actually lost some of them.

I am aware of another sad case. A wife is looking after her husband who needs two people with him at all times owing to his very serious condition. She and her daughter lovingly provide 24-hour care for their loved one. They had been allocated a carer for four hours on a Wednesday in order that one of them could go shopping, collect a pension payment and prescriptions and carry out other jobs in the local town. These hours are no longer available to the family who have been left without help or a respite care service.

The figures may indicate that there has been an increase in the number of hours available in some areas - that may be the case - but I assure the Minister of State that the number of families who are looking for an allocation of hours has increased dramatically owing to overcrowding in hospitals and the cost of nursing home care. In most cases, as has been proved beyond doubt, families want to look after a person in the comfort of his or her own home. This saves the State a significant amount of money in the long term. However, the way families and patients seeking home care packages are being treated is a disgrace. I cannot see the logic in removing home care hours from families who are trying to do their best for their loved ones. The lack of hours of is causing further congestion in hospitals and means that vital beds are being taken up by patients who could be cared for in their homes if there was a comprehensive home care package in place when leaving hospital. It does not make sense that the number of home care packages is being are being cut and hours are not being allocated to other families in desperate need of help in caring for their loved ones. As the Minister of State knows, there is a problem with overcrowding in hospitals. One very quick and ideal solution would be to extend the number of home care packages available and provide support for families to look after their loved ones in the comfort of their own homes.

I recently became aware of another case in which a wife, a full-time carer for her husband, had become extremely ill. She had a stroke and has been in intensive care in hospital for a number of weeks. I was amazed to hear that the HSE services operating in the area only allocated one hour to enable somebody to look after a very sick man, even though his wife had been caring for him full-time. The system does not make sense. I plead with the Minister of State to take on board what I am saying and offer some hope and comfort to many genuine people who are in very serious difficulties because of the cutbacks.

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