The number of home help hours for the elderly in Donegal has had a significant drop in the past year, raising concerns over the knock-on effect in hospitals.
New figures from the HSE revealed that 3,500 less home help hours were provided in 2017, compared to 2016. The numbers have raised concerns regarding cutbacks in hospitals and primary healthcare in the community.
Donegal Sinn Féin Senator Pádraig Mac Lochlainn has called on the HSE to reverse these cuts in 2018.
Senator Mac Lochlainn said: “With the cuts to our community hospitals across the county of one in four beds and one in three nurses over recent years, it’s very clear as to why we have a relentless overcrowding crisis at Letterkenny University Hospital.
“When the Government and the HSE are cutting home help hours and beds and nurses in our community hospitals, then this has a huge knock on effect.
“I am calling on the Government and the HSE to reverse these cuts to home help hours. Our elderly people and their families must be supported so that they can remain at home if that is their wish. We need to invest in and grow our front line primary care health services.
“Sinn Féin have provided incontrovertible evidence again and again that demonstrates that the crisis across our health services has been caused by years of cutbacks and underinvestment.
“The trolley crisis at Letterkenny University Hospital is caused by cutbacks and underinvestment in our major hospital and in our primary care health services across Donegal. These are the facts. And the solutions will be much-increased investment in home care assistants, nurses, doctors and beds over the next number of years.”
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