Cllr. Declan Meehan has branded waiting lists for occupational therapy in Donegal a disgrace, with 476 people currently on waiting lists across the county.
Of those, 316 patients in Donegal have been on the waiting list for more than one year.
There are currently 11 vacancies in occupational therapy in Donegal: eight in primary care, and three in social care which covers disabilities and older people. Two more posts are expected to become vacant by the end of April, leaving 13 posts vacant in total.
The information was released to Cllr. Meehan at a Regional Health Forum meeting in Galway last week.
During the forum, Cllr Meehan told the HSE that he did his own online search for occupational therapist roles in Donegal, on Google, PublicJobs.ie and the HSE jobs site. No open vacancies or recruitment competitions for OTs in Donegal could be found.
“Recruitment to these posts is absolutely critical if the HSE are serious about driving down the scandalous waiting times for people in Donegal. The HSE have told me that there is a rolling recruitment drive for these posts, and yet none of these posts are currently advertised,” Cllr Meehan said.
“Nor have they been since I drew the HSE’s attention to the fact that they are not advertised on February 25th. The very basic step of advertising these posts would be a good place to start. If HSE management cannot even manage the basics of advertising the vacancies then what hope is there for people languishing on waiting lists?”
In response to Meehan’s question, Seán Murphy, General Manager of Letterkenny University Hospital, said he would follow up on the advertisements, adding that they should be on the HSE recruitment website.
“This is a huge failing of the HSE considering the amount of people waiting on occupational therapy appointments and the amount of time they are left on the waiting list,” Cllr Meehan said of the waiting lists.
“OT appointments and services are crucial when it comes to preventing falls, helping people get back to their homes, and keeping them there. This also has a huge knock-on effect on Housing Adaptation grants, provided by Donegal County Council as an OT report is required for people to avail of these.”
Cllr. Meehan has vowed to continue to raise the issue with the HSE until the waiting times start to decrease and people get the care they need.
