In Ireland, you even have to wait to die

Dying patients are on waiting lists for admission to hospices, day hospice services and home care services, according to the chief executive officer of Our Lady’s Hospice in Dublin.
Ms Mo Flynn was in a delegation to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health last week comprised of representatives from the Irish Hospice Foundation, the Irish Cancer Society and the Irish Association for Palliative Care.

Referring to her colleagues in hospices in Dublin, Cork Galway and Limerick, Ms Flynn said: “As of yesterday, across our six hospices, 27 people were awaiting admission to an inpatient specialist bed, some 126 people were seeking home-care services, either waiting to be discharged or at home awaiting some level of specialist input, and 46 people were on the waiting list for day hospice services.”
Ms Flynn then gave information that in St James’s Hospital, there were 94 referrals for palliative care between 26 March and 12 May this year. In relation to these referrals, she said: “The average waiting time for a person to transfer to hospice care is some 8.2 days. The longest waiting time of which we are aware was 20 days. For some people, 20 days may be more than they have left to live.”
Referring to the funding promised in the last number of years, Ms Flynn added: “Even if the money attributed in the last three years to these services was made available to help developments, we would be beginning to address these gaps.” The three organisations told the Committee that less than half of the front line personnel posts promised in the 2006 and 2007 budgets have been filled. It also heard an admission from the Health Service Executive that millions of euro of funding, set aside for palliative care in those budgets, was instead used elsewhere to balance the HSE’s books and fund other health services.