3,200 people waiting for an appointment in the two counties
Over 1,220 children have been left waiting more than a year for an occupational therapy appointment in Kildare and West Wicklow.
New figures received through a parliamentary question show 258,629 people nationally are waiting for an initial appointment across community services, with almost 83,000 involving waits of more than a year.
Sinn Féin TD for Kildare South, Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh, has called for an urgent plan to tackle growing primary and community care waiting lists, including additional staff, clear waiting-time targets and monthly publication of waiting lists.
“These figures show the scale of the crisis in community care,” said Deputy Ní Raghallaigh. “There are 90,003 people waiting for physiotherapy assessment and more than 60,000 waiting for a first occupational therapy assessment.
“Children are being badly failed. More than 17,000 children have waited over a year for an occupational therapy assessment, while 1,647 children have been waiting more than two years for an initial speech and language therapy assessment.”
In Kildare and West Wicklow alone, there are 3,200 people waiting for an occupational therapy assessment, while 1,563 of these have been waiting more than a year.
Deputy Ní Raghallaigh said the figures for children in the area are “particularly poor”. There are 1,720 children waiting for occupational therapy and 1,229 have been waiting more than a year.
“This is on top of the near one million people on acute hospital waiting lists and runs completely contrary to the Sláintecare commitment to move more care into the community,” she said.
“Sinn Féin has set out a clear alternative, recruit more therapists, nurses and other community staff, expand multidisciplinary teams and training places, target additional resources at areas with the longest waits and use short-term additional capacity to clear backlogs while public services are built up.
“We have also published legislation to require community waiting lists to be published regularly by the NTPF. We need transparency, but above all we need the staff and capacity to ensure people get the care they need much sooner and closer to home.”
Deputy Ní Raghllaigh added that the health service is “limping from one crisis to the next” with record hospital trolley figures during the summer months, vacant posts in critical health services and “spiralling” waiting lists.