Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are all aware of the issues facing people who need home supports, including those who are medically fit to be discharged from hospital but who must stay there because home help has not been provided. People are not receiving adequate care because they are not receiving sufficient home help hours to meet their needs. A slot of 15 minutes or 30 minutes in the morning will not cut it for people who are frail and elderly and have reduced mobility. It is not fair on service users or home help carers. The HSE is wasting money by keeping people in hospital beds at astronomical cost instead of providing decent home care packages, which are much more cost-effective and better suited to the needs of most elderly people.

I was contacted by an 81 year old woman who had an accident in November 2017 and was admitted to hospital. Three months later at a care planning meeting, there was a decision that she needed a home care package consisting of three visits per day from carers as well as back-up care. This was subsequently reduced to five hours per week, and she was told the reduction was due to a lack of funding for home care packages. The lady refused the reduced package because it was totally inadequate for her needs and she would not have been able to function with that low level of care. In August 2018, nine months later, she was still in hospital, despite the fact she was medically stable, fit to go home and desperate to return to her own home. Her unnecessarily long stay in hospital was at this stage affecting her mental health.

Later that month, and out of the blue, she was informed that additional funding had been released and she was offered 12 hours of home help per week on the condition that she would be discharged from hospital by the following day at the very latest. That was the day before the Pope's visit to Ireland and the hospital needed the beds. The following day she was sent home in a taxi to a house that had been empty for nine months. This 81 year old lady had been hospitalised for nine months but nobody had visited or checked her home or offered support in linking her with local services. It was an appalling way to treat any human being but particularly a vulnerable older person. It is a classic example of how dysfunctional and wasteful the system is. I urge the Government to address the matter immediately.

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