This article is from page 4 of the 2013-03-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
AMONG the many targets set out by the HSE West in its blueprint and budget for health services in the region is the target of providing 3.1 million hours of home help to 13,460 people in the HSE West area. Closer examination of the figures, which depend on assumptions and optimistic predictions, shows that this is just an average of 4.4 hours per person per week. A total of 846,780 hours of home help service are to be provided to 3,601 people, resulting in a breakdown of 4.5 hours per week. For many dependents on this service, it will mean fewer hours; for others a little more. The HSE West Service Plan 2013 has a number of targets set out in its plan for the year ahead, including cutting waiting times in the region’s hospitals to six hours, at which point 95 per cent should be discharged or admitted. It also states that no adult will wait more than eight months for an elective procedure, in-patient or day case, and no child will wait more than 20 weeks. It has set the waiting time for Out Patient Department appointments as no longer than one year, while it aims to cut the maximum wait for an “urgent colonoscopy” to four weeks. “No person will wait more than 13 weeks following a referral for routine colonoscopy,” it stated. It also outlines plans to provide 2,238 home care packages; support over 5,000 people with NHSS (Fair Deal) residential care places and provide for a minimum of 589,889 hours of personal assistant and home support services. And while the service must cut its staffing numbers by 4 per cent it has promised to prioritise the recruitment of frontline Primary Care and Mental Health posts and Integrated Care Diabetes Nurse Specialists across the region. The implementation of the Newborn Hearing Screening Programme and preparation of three sites for the National Cancer Control Programme Colorectal Screening initiative is also on the wish list.