A LIMERICK mother whose six-year-old son is in desperate need of a new wheelchair claims she has been told by the Health Service Executive (HSE) that he could have to wait up to two years for it.
Yvonne Mason from Moyross explained to the Limerick Post this week how her young son Reece was diagnosed with delayed growth development after contracting chicken pox when he was just eight-months-old.
Reece cannot walk or talk and, according to his mother, has outgrown his first wheelchair, which he got when he was two-years-old — after already having had to wait a year and a half for it.
“Once Mickey Mouse is on the television he is happy but he is very cramped in his chair. He can’t sit still in it and I can tell he is not comfortable. By the time he got this wheelchair, he had already outgrown it,” Yvonne told the Limerick Post this week.
“The headrest is too small and it doesn’t tilt. He is totally cramped and needs a bigger and more modern chair. This one is just not supportive. I think it’s very unfair. The HSE carried out an assessment but said it’s not an emergency.
“Well, I’m his mother and I don’t agree. I can see he is not comfortable and happy in the chair that he has at the minute. It has a few loose screws from the wear and tear of everyday use and he really needs a new one.
“It is an emergency. It is ridiculous that he could be waiting two years for another chair,” she said.
Fianna Fail TD Willie O’Dea, who is the party spokesman on Social Protection, this week slammed the Health Service Executive (HSE) for making clients wait up to two years for wheelchairs while pointing out that the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) has paid out almost half a million euro of HSE funding on external consultants.
He is now urging the HSE to immediately resolve this “scandalous situation”.
“I know of people in Limerick who have been told that they will have to wait up to two years for a basic wheelchair and yet the HSE can fund external consultants for the CRC to the tune of €485,922 over the past two years,” said Deputy O’Dea.
“The HSE claim they have no funds left to pay for wheelchairs for clients and yet almost half a million euros of HSE money is being forked out do the job managers are supposedly employed to do themselves.”
He feels this situation is “simply wrong” and he wants to see the HSE get their priorities right.
“How many wheelchairs would they be able to provide for half a million euros instead of it being spent on external consultants including on the provision of PR consultancy for the CRC?
“Ireland is not a Third World country and no citizen should have to wait two years for the most basic of necessities like a wheelchair. It is a scandalous situation that the HSE need to resolve immediately,” Deputy O’Dea declared.
A spokesperson for HSE Mid West was unable to comment at the time of going to press.
by Alan Jacques
alan@limerickpost.ie
