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26 Nov 2025
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26 Nov 2025
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The HSE said that ongoing recruitment of healthcare assistances for home support in Donegal is being prioritised
Over 280 people in Donegal are waiting on home help, including some patients who are waiting to be discharged from hospital.
As of November 14, eleven people were waiting on home support to enable their discharge from Letterkenny University Hospital.
A further eight people were waiting on home support in order to be discharged from community hospitals.
In total, 282 people in the Donegal Integrated Healthcare Area (IHA) are waiting on home help, including 263 who are waiting on support hours at home.
The matter was raised by Letterkenny-based Fianna Fáil Councillor Ciaran Brogan at a Regional Health Forum West meeting.
“We all know that delayed discharges from hospital beds are causing a lot of backlogs and I want to know what more we can do,” Councillor Brogan said.
“Donegal is a huge geographical spread of a county and I wonder are we exploring every opportunity that is open to us.”
Councillor Brogan said that this is a “huge hurdle” that needs to be overcome.
In a written response to Councillor Brogan, the HSE said that ongoing recruitment of healthcare assistants for home support in Donegal is being prioritised.
An additional 12 healthcare assistants have been recruited into the HSE Home Support Service so far in 2025. The response added that interviews have recently taken place to add further candidates onto the panels “in an effort to address the waiting list for home support”.
The HSE said: “The HSE Donegal Home Support Manager has also met with all private providers on several occasions this year to support initiatives to recruit additional HCAs in Co. Donegal.
"However, capacity remains minimal and on a number of occasions this year, the HSE has had to take back clients from the private providers as they were unable to continue delivering services to some clients due to staffing issues.
“The Home Support Manager has scheduled a meeting with each private provider again in the next month to see if progress on recruitment can be made.”
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Dermot Monaghan, the Integrated Healthcare Area Manager for Donegal, said the matter was raised last week on a call to an assistant secretary at the Department of Health.
However, he added that this issue is something that “will remain a challenge”.
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