Woman, 92, in hospital for year over lack of home care

A 92-year-old woman languishing in a hospital for almost a year because there no funding for a home care package shows how the system is failing older people, Alone said yesterday.

The charity that supports older people to age at home has called on the Government to increase home help hours in line with demand.

Alone chief executive, Sean Moynihan, said the number of home help hours had been cut by 1.58m since 2010, but over that time, the number of older people in the state had increased by 18%.

The elderly woman, who broke her pelvis, has been cleared by her doctors to go home but they did not want to discharge her until a home care package was in place.

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“This case is a clear example of how the system is failing our older people,” said Mr Moynihan.

The woman from South Mayo has been a patient at Mayo University Hospital for almost 300 days. Her home care package has been approved, but there is no funding available.

The HSE said the Galway, Mayo and Roscommon area had been providing home care supports “in excess of the funded levels of service.”

The health authority said it was now required to bring the level of service and expenditure back “into equilibrium” with allocated budgets.

Mr Moynihan said it made economic sense to provide the elderly woman with the home help she needed.

“A home care package would only cost around €400 a week while keeping this lady in hospital, taking up an acute bed, is costing €7,000 a week,” he said.

The HSE said all home care applications are considered by the Home Care Fora, which included representatives from older people services and nursing.

“The allocation of care is focussed on prioritised cases within available resources,” it pointed out.

The woman’s daughter, who does not want to be identified, said because she was working, she would have to get a loan to pay around €600 a week for a private nurse to care for her mother. She said her mother was receiving the best of care at the hospital, but all she wanted was to be in her home again, and was finding it difficult to keep her spirits up.

Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne blamed “pure Leprechaun economics” for the elderly woman’s plight.

“How far are we away from the point where the hospital budget is spent, and people who are dying are left outside,” he asked.

“I am appalled that this is happening in the Taoiseach’s constituency, and there is no public outcry about it.

“This woman wants to go home. This is terrible, unbelievable. We have four TDs in Mayo and five senators. Of the four TDs, two are in government, and the other two are supporting that government. I am also saying to Fianna Fáil TDs in this constituency — have they confidence in the kind of government that is allowing this to happen?”

SOURCE:Irish Examiner, Evelyn Ring