Almost 2 Million Home Help Hours Won't Be Delivered This Year Due To Staff Shortages

Thursday, 21 July 2022 09:36

By Caoimhe Harney

The HSE has budgeted for over 24 million home-help hours this year.

Nearly 2 million home-help hours won't be delivered this year, due to staff shortages, new figures also show over 5,000 people are on waiting lists for home support.

The HSE has budgeted for over 24 million home-help hours this year, to help elderly and vulnerable people to continue to live independently, but it will fall far short of delivering that.

As of the end of May, only 8.7 million were given to over 55,000 people around the country.

The HSE estimates about 35,000 hours worth of care will not be delivered every week this year, because of staff shortages.

That amounts to over 1.8 million over the course of 2022.

Some 5,068 people are currently waiting for a new home care package or for additional hours, after being assessed.

Sinn Fein's health spokesman, David Cullinane, says urgent action is needed to recruit more staff:

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