A 92-year-old woman has been told she must wait four years before she gets an appointment to be assessed for a hearing aid.
That is according to Noel Harrington, a Fine Gael TD for Cork South West, who highlighted her situation in a Dáil question.
He asked Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly, whether he was “satisfied that a 92-year-old in county Cork will have to wait for four years for an appointment with the Health Service Executive (HSE) to be assessed for a hearing aid”.
The Fine Gael TD also quizzed the Minister on “the measures he will take to expedite this assessment and to reduce the waiting list for all those waiting for a similar assessment” before asking him to make a statement on the matter.
Roisin Shortall, who was standing in for Minister Reilly, replied on his behalf saying: “As this is a service matter it has been referred to the HSE for direct reply to the Deputy.”
When asked about the case by the Evening Echo, Deputy Harrington said he would prefer not to comment further and did not wish for the issue to come into the public arena at this moment.
He said the questioned was posed for the Minister to respond to and stated he was now awaiting a report on the matter from the HSE so as to determine whether there was a case to be answered.
Deputy Billy Kelleher, Fianna Fáil’s spokesperson for health said asking an elderly woman to wait four years for an assessment “beggars belief”.
“I have raised this issue in the Dáil a number of times and have not been satisfied with the answer. There is clearly a problem with the audiology waiting times in Cork and in getting hearing aids.”
“It is alarming how the waiting times vary around the country.
“Clearly young people should be prioritised, but so should the elderly. We all know the difficulties we are in when it comes to funding, but to ask a woman to wait four years is unacceptable,” he said.
Figures released in the Dáil in March showed there were 1,708 adults awaiting hearing tests in the Health Service Executive (HSE) South and 50 awaiting hearing aid fittings.
There were 1,899 children awaiting hearing tests and five awaiting hearing aid fittings.