Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 19 October 2021
111. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Health the number of persons currently awaiting an assessment of need under the Disability Act 2005 in each local health office area in CHO2; the corresponding figures for each area at the end of June 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50550/21]
View answerIn August 2020 additional Sláintecare funding of €7.8m was provided to the HSE to address the issue of overdue Assessments of Need (AON).
This funding was provided on a once off and strictly time bound basis to eliminate all AONs overdue on 30th June 2020. While the number of overdue Assessment of Need stood at 6,558 in June 2020, through a combination of different measures, by the end of September 2021 approximately 6,040 children have had their assessment completed, thus reducing the backlog to 520 cases. An overall reduction of 92% to date.
I am pleased to inform the Deputy that 6 CHOs, including CHO2, which had 100 overdue Assessments of Need at the end of June 2020 have now cleared their backlog. The breakdown of the 100 overdue Assessments per county in CHO2 at that time was 58 in Galway, 39 in Mayo and 3 in Roscommon.
The number of overdue Assessments at the end of last month, September, in CHO2 was reduced to 10, with 5 overdue Assessments in both Galway and Mayo respectively and none in Roscommon. I am informed by the HSE that Children’s Disability Network Teams in Galway and Roscommon have commenced services and due to a gap in network manager posts Mayo is expected to reconfigure in December. A recruitment process is underway.
In Budget 2022, we are providing additional funding for the recruitment of therapists and admin support to our Children’s Disability Network Teams. This multi-million-euro investment will hopefully reduce the length of time children are waiting to access these vital services
My focus over the next 12 months is to increase access to timely early intervention services.
