More than 42,000 children have been waiting more than a year for vital healthcare in the community, according to new official figures that have prompted concerns that children are being \u201cleft behind by the State\u201d.<\/p>\n
An analysis of Health Service Executive<\/a> waiting list figures across eight community healthcare disciplines found that at the end of June 287,787 people were waiting for these services, which are designed to drive care away from the acute hospital system. <\/p>\n This represents an increase of some 10 per cent on the total at the end of last year, when about 260,000 people were waiting.<\/p>\n The eight disciplines are audiology, dietetics, occupational therapy, ophthalmology, physiotherapy, podiatry, psychotherapy, and speech and language therapy.<\/p>\n Of those waiting, 75,234 have been waiting for more than a year, with children accounting for the majority (42,376) of the total.<\/p>\n Across all age groups, physiotherapy had the largest number of people on a waiting list (87,901), followed by occupational therapy (47,850).<\/p>\n The figures, released to Social Democrats<\/a>\u2019 health spokesman P\u00e1draig Rice TD in response to a series of parliamentary questions, highlight a particular difficulty in the area of child psychology, with more than 14,000 children waiting more than a year for this service.<\/p>\n The figures are in addition to the 4,424 children waiting to access Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services<\/a>, the 16,593 children waiting on an assessment of need, the 10,961 children on a waiting list for a child disability network team and the 4,945 adults on a homecare waiting list.<\/p>\n Mr Rice said the numbers reveal the \u201cscale of the crisis in primary and community care\u201d and that children in particular were being \u201cleft behind by the State\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cThis cannot be overlooked by Government any longer,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are utterly unacceptable figures and yet, somehow, they have become the norm. This cannot be tolerated any longer.\u201d <\/p>\n He said Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill<\/a> \u201cneeds to get serious about building capacity in primary and community care\u201d.<\/p>\n