Suggestion parents of children awaiting assessments may be reimbursed for private consultations ‘disingenuous’

A suggestion by Minister of State at the Department of Health Anne Rabbitte that parents of children with special needs who are awaiting HSE assessments might be reimbursed for private consultations if current targets are not met has been condemned at the Fórsa Health and Welfare conference in Galway.

Delegates representing 33,000 healthcare workers and administrative staff passed an emergency motion on Thursday that was critical of the Minister’s suggestion which senior official Linda Kelly described as “at best disingenuous but at worst it is deeply hazardous for the children who need services”.

Ms Rabitte had spoken in the Dáil this week about €11.5 million having been provided for six assessment centres but said these had yet to be established. She suggested that if they were not established by August the money might be diverted to reimburse parents of some of the children awaiting assessments who sought to obtain them privately.

Responding, Ms Kelly said a recent RTÉ investigates programme had highlighted important issues in relation to the unregulated use of the term “psychologist” with some individuals “taking the hard-earned cash of families and delivering sub-par assessments, if they are qualified to deliver them at all”.

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He said any such move would not be “about better service provision,” but merely “faster service provision” and would help perpetuate “the downward spiral of every diminishing resources”.

She said Fórsa would “seek an immediate engagement with Minister Rabbitte and will vigorously oppose any attempt to outsource our members’ work. We will also continue to promote and protect the provision of publicly funded disability services for children and young people”.

Speaking earlier, recently appointed HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster said he had spoken with both the Taoiseach and Ms Rabbitte about the issue and insisted the provision of the assessments for the 4,000 families on waiting lists was a priority.

“We have to be careful, though,” he said, referencing “the very, very dodgy situation for the public,” he said had been highlighted by the Prime Time programme.

“I have absolutely no difficulty with the utilisation of private capacity, I’ve said this many times, not just for assessment of need but for all of the waiting lists that we have ... we have to in the short term use whatever capacity is available including both private and public.

“Firstly, the private capacity has to exist ... and what’s available to procure has to be of a quality standard,” he said.