There has to be forward planning by the government to reduce the waiting lists for children's therapies in Cavan and Monaghan. This is what parents have told local TD Brendan Smith who made similar representations to the Minister for Health. Last month, Northern Sound news revealed there is a wait list of almost three years for speech and language therapy in the HSE for this region.
The wait times for children's occupational therapy is 154 weeks and it's 136 weeks for physiotherapy. The HSE said the ever-growing waiting lists are down to the national recruitment embargo. Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly told Deputy Smith his department has created more places on relevant training courses to increase the number of therapists working in the HSE. Brendan Smith said the Department must also project the need in the future. "Recruitment of clinicians must be speeded up," he explained. "Retention levels must be improved. Too many parents are literally going around in circles, being referred from one service to another and meanwhile the children wait and wait for therapies."
