Mother, 81, stuck in hospital due to lack of home-care help two months after being given all-clear to leave
The family of an elderly stroke victim, who say she is stuck in hospital because there is no home-care help available, are appealing to the HSE to help the bring her home.
Meath grandmother Kitty Galligan (aged 81) is still in the set-down unit of Dundalk Hospital almost two months after she was given the all-clear to come home, according to her family.
They say that they cannot access an approved seven-and-a-half hours of home care a week because of a current embargo on hiring staff.
Her family are determined to bring her home to Kilbeg, Carlanstown, as soon as possible and are urging the HSE to allow them to outsource the help to another approved service provider.
Kitty has been recovering from a stroke she suffered in her kitchen on the morning of May 3 last and has been given approval to go home but instead is unnecessarily taking up a hospital bed, say her family.
"We were lucky that my wife Mary was still at home that morning and recognised she had a stroke from the TV campaign," said Kitty's son Patrick.
"We rang an ambulance straight away and mam was then transferred from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda to Beaumont Hospital for surgery on a bleed on the brain and a blockage in her neck.
"She then returned to Drogheda and on to Dundalk on June 7th to the stroke rehabilitation unit.
"She was completely paralysed down her left-hand side but now she has a lot of movement back but her hearing and eyesight are affected.
"She's now in the step-down ward but can't come home because we're told there's an embargo on employing more home care workers and there are none currently available to look after mam."
"We can't understand it as recently published figures show that it costs almost €6,000 a week to keep a person in hospital while it averages at €165 a week for home care.
The family outlined how they were given approval for home-care help by the HSE, but are unable to transfer her home because of the HSE's recruitment embargo.
Patrick said: "We applied for home care and were given five-and-a-half hours a week and on appeal, this was increased to seven-and-a-half hours a week which would be great as it would mean three visits of a half-hour five days a week.
"This would mean mam would get help in getting showered and dressed, a visit during the day and help going to bed. The Occupational Therapist says she would need a minimum of three visits a day.
"We believe that her recovery will be faster at home but we've been told that there are no home care assistants to utilise the approved hours.
"My wife and I live at home with mam but we both work in Dublin so are away for most of the day. She's still a high fall risk and has fallen a number of times in the care of the hospital so I'm terrified she will fall while we are at work.
"At least if I knew there was someone calling three times a day, I wouldn't panic as much.
"The HSE Home Care Booklet says that if they have granted hours and don't have the staff to facilitate them, it can be outsourced to another approved service provider. But we were told, when asked, that they don't do that anymore."
"Mam is in good form but she's fed up. We, as a family, couldn't thank the frontline staff - doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists - enough for all their care and help but she's in the wrong place now. She should be at home."
In a statement the HSE said:
"The HSE cannot comment on individual cases. Maintaining a client’s confidentiality is not only an ethical requirement for the HSE, it is also a legal requirement as defined in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) along with the Data Protection Acts 1988-2018.
"When a client or family makes personal information public, this does not relieve the HSE of its duty to preserve/uphold client confidentiality at all times. A member of a client's clinical team, however, would be happy to discuss any aspect of a client’s care directly with them or their family members.
Home Support Services
Home Support Services is a non-statutory scheme, the aim of which is to support an Older Person living at home.
Access to services is via assessment by HSE professionals. The quantity of services is limited to the available budget.
Currently, Midlands Louth Meath Community Healthcare Organisation (MLM CHO) are profiling their priority home support clients based on assessed needs and are working to provide services based on that priority profile.
At the end of June, MLM CHO were continuing to deliver home support services to 5,647 clients with a total of 140,979 hours. These hours have since increased and will be available following the next Key Performance Indicators return mid-August.
The expenditure on Older Persons Home Support services in June 2019 was €4,260,343.
