Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will read an extract from a letter that was circulated to general practitioners from the mental health Cork and Kerry HSE offices:

In recent weeks, it has been increasingly difficult to maintain out-of-hours, on-call services at the two Cork city emergency departments along with the out-of-hours service to Éist Linn, the CAMHS in-patient unit. The difficult decision has now been taken to prioritise out-of-hours cover to Éist Linn and to postpone out-of-hours on-call cover in the emergency departments until staffing levels improve.

That information was circulated to general practitioners on 7 April in the Cork-Kerry area. Some of the replies I have got back to recent parliamentary questions are quite alarming in terms of the length of time people are waiting for services from CAMHS in the region. Beyond that, it is also a major national problem. I know there is extreme difficulty in recruiting at non-consultant hospital doctor and consultant level. I accept that. However, this has been on the cards for some time. We have been raising the matter for a number of years. We knew there were going to be huge difficulties because of the slow recruitment process. Now that is evidenced on a daily basis in Cork and Kerry and throughout the country.

A general practitioner said he had an extremely vulnerable 14 year old and a 15 year old whom he could not refer to the emergency department as there was no CAMHS support available. While I acknowledge the Minister of State's commitment to this area, we do need to expedite the recruitment of clinical personnel to ensure we do not have a situation in which vulnerable children are waiting up to a year for assessment and supports. It simply is not good enough.

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