Anger over delays to Ashbourne services

ANGRY Ashbourne residents have hit out at a Health Service Executive staff embargo which is causing huge delays in the provision of services at the local health clinic. Dental and speech therapy services, in particular, have been badly affected, with many local parents opting for private treatment.

One parent has had to bring her son to Kells for private speech therapy because of the delays.

Audrey O'Neill of The Briars said that because of staff shortages she was told her son would have to wait 18 months before he could see a speech therapist.

"This would have had a terrible affect on him because by then he would be attending school and he could have a lot of difficulties" she said.

She is now travelling to Kells and has to pay €200 per session for therapy for her son, whose problems should be resolved fairly quickly because of the early intervention.

Meanwhile, Denise Cooley of Alderbrook has faced problems getting timely dental treatment for her son.

He needed treatment over the Easter weekend and they could not access either the health clinic or a private dentist and eventually got him an appointment at the dental hospital in Dublin on Good Friday. He returned for further treatment the following Monday.

"They told us there that we needed to bring him to his own dentist as soon as possible, but when I went to make an appointment with the health clinic I was told the earliest would be in May this year," she said.

Ms Cooley said she was also told that the current dentist is retiring later this year and because of the recruitment ban won't be replaced and there will no longer be dental services in Ashbourne.

Deputy Shane McEntee has deplored the impact of the staff embargo on services at the Ashbourne Health Centre. He said that the staff had a reputation second to none and had served the people of Ashbourne and the surrounding area to the best of their ability. 

"The quality of the service the centre can provide in the future is now in doubt as the impact of the staff embargo begins to bite," he added.

"The HSE when it was established said it would concentrate on providing services in the community. Speech therapy and dentistry are two services that are ideally suited to being provided locally. If these two services are not available locally in the health centre in Ashbourne parents of young people who require them are going to face major difficulties.

"The staffing problems in the Ashbourne Health Centre are a further example of the deteriorating situation across the HSE. In this instance it is young people who will particularly suffer."