12,587 children waiting for Speech & Language Assessments – McGrath

Independent TD Mattie McGrath has described the scale of the waiting lists numbers for children seeking Speech and Language Assessments as a national crisis. Deputy McGrath was speaking after the information made available to him via Parliamentary Question from the HSE Disability Services Social Care Division showed that the number currently awaiting assessment is 12,587, while the numbers awaiting treatment is 8,437:

“These numbers give concrete expression to the many examples of anecdotal evidence I have heard in relation to the delays currently afflicting Speech and Language services.

It is absolutely incredible that even with the €18.5m given in 2013 for the recruitment of over 260 primary care team posts and over €1.4m to support community intervention team development that we are still in this dire situation.

What is equally disturbing is the fact that the data reveals there are 401children awaiting assessment for over 12 months and 1,725 are waiting over 12 months for commencement of therapy.

North Tipperary has 1 Early Intervention Team and 1 School-aged Team in place while South Tipperary has 1 Early Intervention Team but the 2 School Age Teams, which will incorporate the Early Intervention Team, are not scheduled until the end of Quarter 2 2016.

This demonstrates that a vital clinical window of opportunity is being lost in terms of getting these children enrolled into an intensive course of speech and language therapy. Any parent will tell you in that this then leads to enormous challenges which can severely damage the ability of the child to progress in other areas of their lives, particularly in educational or social terms.

Minister Varadkar is clearly failing to deliver on yet another vital aspect of health service provision. It is time that he started targeting areas like this instead of getting up in implementing the policy fantasies of his predecessor Dr James Reilly,” concluded Deputy McGrath.

PQ 37717-15 (Deputy McGrath) – SLT Services in Tipperary (19-11-15) – Download